Political Liberalism

Introduction

Political Liberalism (1993) collects and revises lectures Rawls had developed since the mid-1980s, beginning with the essay “Justice as Fairness: Political not Metaphysical” (1985). Rawls concedes that A Theory of Justice relied on a comprehensive liberal doctrine that not all reasonable citizens can share. Modern democracies are marked by “reasonable pluralism”, lasting disagreement between religious and philosophical worldviews. A political conception of justice should therefore be “freestanding” and supported by an overlapping consensus of these doctrines, each for its own reasons. Questions of basic justice are to be settled by “public reason”. The expanded edition of 1996 includes Rawls’s reply to Habermas.

Connections

Builds on

• A Theory of Justice1971 · John Rawls

More works by John Rawls

• 1971A Theory of Justice