John Rawls His Life and Theory of Justice

by Pogge, Thomas; Kosch, Michelle

• ISBN13: 9780195136371
• ISBN10: 0195136373
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-01-27
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

John Rawls was one of the most important political philosophers of our time, and promises to be an enduring figure over the coming decades. His Theory of Justice (1971) has had a profound impact across philosophy, politics, law, and economics. Nonetheless Rawlsian theory is not easy to understand, particularly for beginners, and his writing can be dense and forbidding. Thomas Pogge's short introduction (originally published in German) gives a thorough and concise presentation of the main outlines of Rawls's theory, introduces biographical information when necessary, and draws links between the Rawlsian enterprise and other important positions in moral and political philosophy.

Author Biography

Thomas Pogge is Professor of Political Science at Columbia University and Professorial Research Fellow at the ANU Centre for Philosophy and Public Ethics. He has published widely on Rawls, Kant, political and moral philosophy, and on issues in global justice.

Table of Contents

Biography	p. 3
Family and Schooling	p. 4
College and War	p. 9
Academic Career	p. 16
The Turbulent Decade 1962-1971	p. 18
After A Theory of Justice	p. 22
The Meaning of Rawls's Project	p. 26
The Focus on the Basic Structure	p. 28
The Origin of the Theory	p. 29
The Complexity of Modern Societies	p. 31
The Idea of an Overlapping Consensus	p. 34
The Scope of the Theory	p. 38
A Top-Tier Criterion of Justice	p. 42
Purely Recipient-Oriented Criteria of Justice	p. 43
The Anonymity Condition	p. 48
Fundamental Interests versus Happiness	p. 54
The Basic Idea: Justice as Fairness	p. 60
The Original Position	p. 60
Maximin versus Average	p. 67
Primary Goods	p. 73
The Lexical Priority of the Basic Liberties	p. 77
The First Principle of Justice	p. 82
The Structure of a Basic Right	p. 83
Formulating the Required Scheme of Basic Rights and Liberties	p. 85
The Fair Value of the Basic Political Liberties	p. 91
Permissible Reductions of Basic Liberties	p. 96
Impermissible Reductions of Basic Liberties	p. 101
The Second Principle of Justice	p. 106
The Difference Principle in First Approximation	p. 106
The Difference Principle in Detail	p. 110
Advocating the Difference Principle in the Original Position	p. 115
The Opportunity Principle	p. 120
Advocating the Opportunity Principle in the Original Position	p. 126
A Property-Owning Democracy	p. 133
A Rawlsian Society	p. 135
A Well-Ordered Society	p. 137
A Political Conception of Justice	p. 139
Political versus Comprehensive Liberalisms	p. 144
An Egalitarian Liberal Conception of Justice	p. 148
A Society Well-Ordered by Rawls's Conception	p. 153
A More ReaHstic Vision	p. 156
On Justification	p. 161
Reflective Equilibrium	p. 162
Fundamental Ideas	p. 170
Truth and Reasonableness	p. 174
The Reception of Justice as Fairness	p. 178
Rawls and Libertarianism	p. 178
Rawls and Communitarianism	p. 185
Rawls and Kant	p. 188
Conclusion	p. 196
Appendix	p. 197
Timeline	p. 197
Literature	p. 198
Works by Rawls	p. 198
Selected Secondary Works	p. 199
Collections	p. 199
Monographs	p. 200
Essays	p. 204
Index	p. 215
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