A Theory Of Justice

Though the revised edition of A Theory of Justice, published in 1999, is the definitive statement of Rawls's view, so much of the extensive literature on Rawls's theory refers to the first edition. This reissue makes the first edition once again available for scholars and serious students of Rawls's work.

Previous edition, 1st, published in 1971.

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.

An engaging account of the titan of political philosophy and the development of his most important work, A Theory of Justice, coming at a moment when its ideas are sorely needed. It is hard to overestimate the influence of John Rawls on political philosophy and theory over the last half-century. His books have sold millions of copies worldwide, and he is one of the few philosophers whose work is known in the corridors of power as well as in the halls of academe. Rawls is most famous for the development of his view of “justice as fairness,” articulated most forcefully in his best-known work, A Theory of Justice. In it he develops a liberalism focused on improving the fate of the least advantaged, and attempts to demonstrate that, despite our differences, agreement on basic political institutions is both possible and achievable. Critics have maintained that Rawls’s view is unrealistic and ultimately undemocratic. In this incisive new intellectual biography, Andrius Gališanka argues that in misunderstanding the origins and development of Rawls’s central argument, previous narratives fail to explain the novelty of his philosophical approach and so misunderstand the political vision he made prevalent. Gališanka draws on newly available archives of Rawls’s unpublished essays and personal papers to clarify the justifications Rawls offered for his assumption of basic moral agreement. Gališanka’s intellectual-historical approach reveals a philosopher struggling toward humbler claims than critics allege. To engage with Rawls’s search for agreement is particularly valuable at this political juncture. By providing insight into the origins, aims, and arguments of A Theory of Justice, Gališanka’s John Rawls will allow us to consider the philosopher’s most important and influential work with fresh eyes.

This book reconstructs Rawls's argument, as well as discussing some of the most influential criticisms in the secondary literature.

Rawls' 1971 text links the idea of social justice to a basic sense of fairness that recognizes human rights and freedoms.

Presents an analysis of what justice is, the transcendental theory of justice and its drawbacks, and a persuasive argument for a comparative perspective on justice that can guide us in the choice between alternatives.

First published in 1975, this collection includes many of the best critical responses to John Rawls' A Theory of Justice, and the editor has elected to reissue the book without making any substitutions. As he argues in his new preface, the variety of issues raise in the original papers has been a major part of the book's appeal. He also acknowledges that no modest revision of this book could pretend to respond adequately to the considerable elaboration and evolution of Rawls' theory in the last fifteen years. Political philosophy has been one of the most exciting areas of philosophical activity in the years since A Theory of Justice, and much of that activity has been a response to Rawls' work. In his preface, the editor suggests how some of the insights and criticisms contained in the collection have had a bearing on developments in Rawls' theory and in political philosophy more generally, and that fresh reading of each of them reveals additional important points that have not yet received adequate attention. The contributors are: Benjamin Barber, Norman Daniels, Gerald Dworkin, Ronald Dworkin, Joel Feinberg, Milton Fisk, R.M. Hare, H.L.A. Hart, David Lyons, Frank Michelman, Richard Miller, Thomas Nagel, T.M. Scanlon, and A.K. Sen.