A Theory of Justice

by John RAWLS

• ISBN13: 9780674880108
• ISBN10: 0674880102
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2009-06-30
• Publisher: Harvard University Press

Summary

Since it appeared in 1971, John Rawls's A Theory of Justice has become a classic. The author has now revised the original edition to clear up a number of difficulties he and others have found in the original book. 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.

Author Biography

John Rawls is James B. Conant University Professor, Emeritus, at Harvard University.

Table of Contents

Preface for the Revised Edition	p. xi
Preface	p. xvii
Theory
Justice as Fairness	p. 3
The Role of Justice	p. 3
The Subject of Justice	p. 6
The Main Idea of the Theory of Justice	p. 10
The Original Position and Justification	p. 15
Classical Utilitarianism	p. 19
Some Related Contrasts	p. 24
Intuitionism	p. 30
The Priority Problem	p. 36
Some Remarks about Moral Theory	p. 40
The Principles of Justice	p. 47
Institutions and Formal Justice	p. 47
Two Principles of Justice	p. 52
Interpretations of the Second Principle	p. 57
Democratic Equality and the Difference Principle	p. 65
Fair Equality of Opportunity and Pure Procedural Justice	p. 73
Primary Social Goods as the Basis of Expectations	p. 78
Relevant Social Positions	p. 81
The Tendency to Equality	p. 86
Principles for Individuals: The Principle of Fairness	p. 93
Principles for Individuals: The Natural Duties	p. 98
The Original Position	p. 102
The Nature of the Argument for Conceptions of Justice	p. 102
The Presentation of Alternatives	p. 105
The Circumstances of Justice	p. 109
The Formal Constraints of the Concept of Right	p. 112
The Veil of Ignorance	p. 118
The Rationality of the Parties	p. 123
The Reasoning Leading to the Two Principles of Justice	p. 130
The Reasoning Leading to the Principle of Average Utility	p. 139
Some Difficulties with the Average Principle	p. 144
Some Main Grounds for the Two Principles of Justice	p. 153
Classical Utilitarianism, Impartiality, and Benevolence	p. 160
Institutions
Equal Liberty	p. 171
The Four-Stage Sequence	p. 171
The Concept of Liberty	p. 176
Equal Liberty of Conscience	p. 180
Toleration and the Common Interest	p. 186
Toleration of the Intolerant	p. 190
Political Justice and the Constitution	p. 194
Limitations on the Principle of Participation	p. 200
The Rule of Law	p. 206
The Priority of Liberty Defined	p. 214
The Kantian Interpretation of Justice as Fairness	p. 221
Distributive Shares	p. 228
The Concept of Justice in Political Economy	p. 228
Some Remarks about Economic Systems	p. 234
Background Institutions for Distributive Justice	p. 242
The Problem of Justice between Generations	p. 251
Time Preference	p. 259
Further Cases of Priority	p. 263
The Precepts of Justice	p. 267
Legitimate Expectations and Moral Desert	p. 273
Comparison with Mixed Conceptions	p. 277
The Principle of Perfection	p. 285
Duty and Obligation	p. 293
The Arguments for the Principles of Natural Duty	p. 293
The Arguments for the Principle of Fairness	p. 301
The Duty to Comply with an Unjust Law	p. 308
The Status of Majority Rule	p. 313
The Definition of Civil Disobedience	p. 319
The Definition of Conscientious Refusal	p. 323
The Justification of Civil Disobedience	p. 326
The Justification of Conscientious Refusal	p. 331
The Role of Civil Disobedience	p. 335
Ends
Goodness as Rationality	p. 347
The Need for a Theory of the Good	p. 347
The Definition of Good for Simpler Cases	p. 350
A Note on Meaning	p. 355
The Definition of Good for Plans of Life	p. 358
Deliberative Rationality	p. 365
The Aristotelian Principle	p. 372
The Definition of Good Applied to Persons	p. 380
Self-Respect, Excellences, and Shame	p. 386
Several Contrasts between the Right and the Good	p. 392
The Sense of Justice	p. 397
The Concept of a Well-Ordered Society	p. 397
The Morality of Authority	p. 405
The Morality of Association	p. 409
The Morality of Principles	p. 414
Features of the Moral Sentiments	p. 420
The Connection between Moral and Natural Attitudes	p. 425
The Principles of Moral Psychology	p. 429
The Problem of Relative Stability	p. 434
The Basis of Equality	p. 441
The Good of Justice	p. 450
Autonomy and Objectivity	p. 450
The Idea of Social Union	p. 456
The Problem of Envy	p. 464
Envy and Equality	p. 468
The Grounds for the Priority of Liberty	p. 474
Happiness and Dominant Ends	p. 480
Hedonism as a Method of Choice	p. 486
The Unity of the Self	p. 491
The Good of the Sense of Justice	p. 496
Concluding Remarks on Justification	p. 506
Conversion Table	p. 517
Index	p. 521
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