A Theory of Justice: Original EditionJohn Rawls aims to express an essential part of the common core of the democratic tradition—justice as fairness—and to provide an alternative to utilitarianism, which had dominated the Anglo-Saxon tradition of political thought since the nineteenth century. Rawls substitutes the ideal of the social contract as a more satisfactory account of the basic rights and liberties of citizens as free and equal persons. “Each person,” writes Rawls, “possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override.” Advancing the ideas of Rousseau, Kant, Emerson, and Lincoln, Rawls’s theory is as powerful today as it was when first published. |
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... considered judgment in the balancing of principles , it seems appropriate to think of intuitionism in this more general fashion . How far such a view is committed to certain epistemological theories is a separate question . Now so ...
... considered judgments on reflection , would be by no means without importance . At least it would single out the criteria which are significant , the apparent axes , so to speak , of our considered judgments of social justice . The ...
... considered judgments , we think appropriate to give to the plurality of principles . A refutation of intuitionism consists in presenting the sort of constructive criteria that are said not to exist . To be sure , the notion of a ...
... considered judgments of justice converge . If such a conception does exist , then , from the standpoint of the original position , there would be strong reasons for accepting it , since it is rational to introduce further coherence into ...
... considered judgment in reflective equilibrium and the reasons for introducing it.24 Let us assume that each person beyond a certain age and possessed of the requisite intellectual capacity develops a sense of justice under normal social ...