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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... kind , and any ethical view is bound to rely on intuition to some degree at many points . For example , one could maintain , as Moore did , that personal affection and human understanding , the creation and the contemplation of beauty ...
... kind , we use their intensity and duration ; in comparing pleasures of different kinds , we must consider their duration and dignity jointly . Pleasures of higher kinds may have a worth greater than those of lower kinds however great ...
... kind by ranking the principle of equal liberty prior to the principle regulating economic and social inequalities . This means , in effect , that the basic structure of society is to arrange the inequalities of wealth and authority in ...
... to intuition , of whatever kind , or that we should try to . The practical aim is to reach a reasonably reliable agreement in judgment in order to promay call upon intuvide a common conception of justice . If 44 Justice as Fairness.
... kind . And once we regard the sense of justice as a mental capacity , as involving the exercise of thought , the relevant judgments are those given under conditions favorable for deliberation and judgment in general . I now turn to the ...