A theory of justice / John Rawls.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rawls, John, 1921-2002

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Justice.

Social Justice.

Philosophy.

Medical Subjects:

Social Justice.

Philosophy.

Genre:

Festschriften.

Physical Description:

xv, 607 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1971.

Summary:

This volume is a widely-read book of political philosophy and ethics. Arguing for a principled reconciliation of liberty and equality, it attempts to solve the problem of distributive justice (this concerns what is considered to be socially just with respect to the allocation of goods in a society). The resultant theory is known as "Justice as Fairness", from which the author derives his two famous principles of justice. The first of these two principles is known as the equal liberty principle. The second principle is split into two parts; the first, known as fair equality of opportunity, asserts that justice should not benefit those with advantageous social contingencies; while the second, reflecting the idea that inequality is only justified if it is to the advantage of those who are less well-off, is known as the difference principle.

Contents:

Part 1: Theory

Chapter 1: Justice as fairness

Role of justice

Subject of justice

Main idea of the theory of justice

Original position and justification

Classical utilitarianism

Some related contrasts

Intuitionism

Priority problem

Some remarks about moral theory

Chapter 2: Principles of justice

Institutions and formal justice

Two principles of justice

Interpretations of the second principle

Democratic equality and the difference principle

Fair equality of opportunity and pure procedural justice

Primary social goods as the basis of expectations

Relevant social positions

Tendency to equality

Principles for individuals: the principle of fairness

Principles for individuals: the natural duties

Chapter 3: Original position

Nature of the argument for conceptions of justice

Presentation of alternatives

Circumstances of justice

Formal constraints off the concept of right

Veil of ignorance

Rationality of the parties

Reasoning leading to the two principles of justice

Reasoning leading to the principle of average utility

Some difficulties with the average principle

Some main grounds for the two principles of justice

Classical utilitarianism, impartiality, and benevolence.

Part 2: Institutions

Chapter 4: Equal liberty

Four-stage sequence

Concept of liberty

Equal liberty of conscience

Toleration and the common interest

Toleration of the intolerant

Political justice and the constitution

Limitations on the principle of participation

Rule of law

Priority of liberty defined

Kantian interpretation of justice as fairness

Chapter 5: Distributive shares

Concept of justice in political economy

Some remarks about economic systems

Background institutions for distributive justice

Problem of justice between generations

Time preference

Further cases of priority

Precepts of justice

Legitimate expectations and moral desert

Comparison with mixed conceptions

Principle of perfection

Chapter 6: Duty and obligation

Arguments for the principles of natural duty

Arguments for the principle of fairness

Duty to comply with an unjust law

Status of majority rule

Definition of civil disobedience

Definition of conscientious refusal

Justification of civil disobedience

Justification of conscientious refusal

Role of civil disobedience.

Part 3: Ends

Chapter 7: Goodness as rationality

Need for a theory of the good

Definition of good for simpler cases

Note on meaning

Definition of good for plans of life

Deliberative rationality

Aristotelian principle

Definition of good applied to persons

Self-respect, excellences, and shame

Several contrasts between the right and the good

Chapter 8: Sense of justice

Concept of a well-ordered society

Morality of authority

Morality of association

Morality of principles

Features of the moral sentiments

Connection between moral and natural attitudes

Principles of moral psychology

Problem of relative stability

Basis of equality

Chapter 9: Good of justice

Autonomy and objectivity

Idea of social union

Problem of envy

Envy and equality

Grounds for the priority of liberty

Happiness and dominant ends

Hedonism as a method of choice

Unity of the self

Good of the sense of justice

Concluding remarks on justification

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

American Political Science Association Benjamin E. Lippincott Award, 1987.

Other Format:

Online version: Rawls, John, 1921-2002. Theory of justice.

ISBN:

0674880102

9780674880108

0674880145

9780674880146

OCLC:

216912