John Rawls
Also known as John Bordley Rawls
American political philosopher (1921 to 2002) of justice as fairness and the veil of ignorance.
At a glance
Main ideas
Original position, Veil of ignorance, Two principles of justice …
See all 6Criticism
Libertarian, Communitarian, Too ideal
See all 3Books to start with
A Theory of Justice, Political Liberalism, The Law of Peoples …
See all 4Connections
Milton Friedman and A Theory of Justice
See all 2
Also on this page: Key facts · Links · Sources · Related pages
- Rawls was a moral and political philosopher who spent most of his career at Harvard.
- His 1971 book A Theory of Justice argued for justice as fairness: equal basic liberties, fair equality of opportunity, and inequalities only where they benefit the least advantaged.
- He derived these principles from the original position, a choice made behind a veil of ignorance.
- Political Liberalism (1993) asked how a state can be legitimate when citizens deeply disagree.
Why it matters
- His book is widely credited with reviving normative political philosophy; nearly every later argument about justice and inequality starts from him or against him.
Key facts
- Born
- 21 Feb 1921, Baltimore, Maryland1
- Died
- 24 Nov 2002, Lexington, Massachusetts, aged 811
- Education
- BA, Princeton (1943, summa cum laude); PhD in philosophy, Princeton (1950)1
- Army
- U.S. Army infantryman from 1943 to 1946, in New Guinea and the Philippines; Bronze Star1
- Career
- Cornell from 1953; MIT from 1960; Harvard professor of philosophy from 1962, as James Bryant Conant University Professor1
- Main books
- A Theory of Justice (1971), Political Liberalism (1993), The Law of Peoples (1999)1
- Honours
- Schock Prize for Logic and Philosophy and National Humanities Medal, both 19991
Main ideas
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Original position1
People choose the principles of a society without knowing which place in it they will occupy.
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Veil of ignorance1
Behind it, no one knows their gender, race, wealth, talents or conception of the good.
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Two principles of justice1
Equal basic liberties first; then fair equality of opportunity and the difference principle.
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Difference principle1
Social and economic inequalities are just only if they work to the benefit of the least advantaged.
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Reflective equilibrium1
Adjusting general principles and judgements about cases until they fit each other.
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Public reason1
In Political Liberalism, citizens should justify political power only with reasons others can share.
Criticism
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Libertarian1
Robert Nozick attacked his account of distributive justice in Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974).
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Communitarian1
Taylor, MacIntyre, Sandel and Walzer contested the universalist basis of the original position.
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Too ideal1
Amartya Sen argued that a focus on ideal scenarios distracts from remedying actual injustice.
Books to start with
The line under a date fills as it gets older: empty when new, full at 2 years.
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Justice as fairness, the original position and the two principles.
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Political Liberalism1
How a liberal state can be legitimate amid reasonable disagreement.
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The Law of Peoples1
His most complete statement on international justice.
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Justice as Fairness: A Restatement1
A shorter summary of his main arguments, answering critics of A Theory of Justice.
Connections
Links
Sources
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