Work · Political Philosophy & Ethics (20th–21st c.)
A Theory of Justice
Justice as fairness – the original position and the veil of ignorance.
Introduction
Rawls had worked on the book since his essay “Justice as Fairness” (1958); it appeared in 1971 at almost 600 pages. Its three parts treat the theory itself, the institutions of a just society and the question of whether such a society could be stable because its citizens would also find it good. Rawls introduces the method of “reflective equilibrium”, in which principles and considered judgements in particular cases are adjusted to one another, and lists “primary goods” that everyone needs whatever their aims. Robert Nozick’s libertarian Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974) and communitarian critics such as Michael Sandel replied. A revised edition appeared in 1999.
Connections
Builds on
- Two Treatises of Government1689 · John Locke
- The Social Contract1762 · Jean-Jacques Rousseau
- Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals1785 · Immanuel Kant
Criticizes
- Utilitarianism1863 · John Stuart Mill
- The Methods of Ethics1874 · Henry Sidgwick
Taken up in
- Political Liberalism1993 · John Rawls
Criticized in
- Anarchy, State, and Utopia1974 · Robert Nozick
- After Virtue1981 · Alasdair MacIntyre
- Liberalism and the Limits of Justice1982 · Michael Sandel
- Justice and the Politics of Difference1990 · Iris Marion Young
- Towards Justice and Virtue1996 · Onora O’Neill
- The Racial Contract1997 · Charles W. Mills
- Development as Freedom1999 · Amartya Sen
- Frontiers of Justice2006 · Martha Nussbaum
- The Idea of Justice2009 · Amartya Sen
More works by John Rawls
Appears in
- Journey ‘What Is Just?’ · Stop 7 of 10
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