A Theory of Justice

A Theory of Justice is a book of political and moral philosophy by John Rawls. It was originally published in 1971 and revised in 1975 (for the translated editions) and in 1999. In A Theory of Justice, Rawls lays out his own moral theory, called "Justice as Fairness", and his two famous principles of justice, the liberty principle and the difference principle.

The First Principle of Justice

First of all, each person would have the most extensive system of rights and freedoms which can be accorded equally to everyone. These include freedoms of speech, conscience, peaceful assembly, and so forth, as well as democratic rights. Rawls specifically excludes the freedom of contract from the list.

Related Topics:
Freedoms of speech - Peaceful assembly - Democratic rights - Freedom of contract

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The first principle is absolute, and may never be violated, even for the sake of the second principle (i.e. the first principle is lexically prior to the second principle). However, various basic rights may be traded off against each other for the sake of obtaining the largest possible system of rights. Rawls falls squarely into the deontological (duty-based) school of ethics, in the tradition of Kant, as opposed to the consequentialist school exemplified by the utilitarians.

Related Topics:
Deontological - Ethics - Kant

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