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A Theory of Justice
John Rawls
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Description for A Theory of Justice
Paperback. Num Pages: 560 pages, 12 line illustrations. BIC Classification: HP. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational; (UP) Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly; (UU) Undergraduate. Dimension: 233 x 155 x 34. Weight in Grams: 644.
“A milestone in political and moral philosophy, as groundbreaking as the theories of Bentham and Kant and arguably the most important and influential piece of contemporary philosophy of the last century.” —The Guardian
The principles of justice that Rawls set forth in this book are those that free and rational people would accept in an “original position” of equality. In this hypothetical situation, which corresponds to the state of nature in social contract theory, no one knows their place in society; their class or social status; their fortune in the distribution of natural assets and abilities—their intelligence, strength, and the ... Read morelike—or even their conception of the good. Deliberating behind this “veil of ignorance,” people naturally determine their proper rights and duties. Thus, as Rawls writes, “each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override.”
Incorporating the ideas of Rousseau, Kant, Emerson, and Lincoln, Rawls’s theory is as powerful today as it was when first published in 1971. For more than half a century, A Theory of Justice has been taught and debated, celebrated and translated into more than thirty languages. This revised edition includes changes, discussed in the preface, that Rawls considered to be significant, especially to the discussions of liberty and primary social goods.
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Product Details
Publisher
Harvard University Press
Place of Publication
Cambridge, Mass., United States
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 7 to 11 working days
About John Rawls
John Rawls was James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University. He was recipient of the 1999 National Humanities Medal.
Reviews for A Theory of Justice
The most influential work of liberal political philosophy of the twentieth century.
Kwame Anthony Appiah
New York Review of Books
I don’t know of a more lucid articulation of the intuitions many of us share about what is just.
Scott Turow
New York Times Book Review
Impeccably high-minded in its goals, meticulous in execution, ... Read moreoptimistic in its view of humanity…Rawls’s theory continues to provide both a compelling framework within which such basic principles can be debated, and a flexible but robust defence of liberal human values. That is a monumental achievement.
Prospect
A much-needed affirmation of a free, tolerant, and democratic society…at a time when individual freedom and democracy are under attack.
The Nation
Magisterial…John Rawls draws on the most subtle techniques of contemporary analytic philosophy to provide the social contract tradition with what is, from a philosophical point of view at least, the most formidable defense it has yet received…[and] makes available the powerful intellectual resources and the comprehensive approach that have so far eluded antiutilitarians. He also makes clear how wrong it was to claim, as so many were claiming only a few years back, that systematic moral and political philosophy are dead… Whatever else may be true it is surely true that we must develop a sterner and more fastidious sense of justice. In making his peerless contribution to political theory, John Rawls has made a unique contribution to this urgent task. No higher achievement is open to a scholar.
Marshall Cohen
New York Times Book Review
Rawls’s Theory of Justice is widely and justly regarded as this century’s most important work of political philosophy. Originally published in 1971, it quickly became the subject of extensive commentary and criticism, which led Rawls to revise some of the arguments he had originally put forward in this work… This edition will certainly become the definitive one; all scholars will use it, and it will be an essential text for any academic library. It contains a new preface that helpfully outlines the major revisions, and a ‘conversion table’ that correlates the pagination of this edition with the original, which will be useful to students and scholars working with this edition and the extensive secondary literature on Rawls’s work. Highly recommended.
J. D. Moon
Choice
[Rawls] has elucidated a conception of justice which goes beyond anything to be found in Kant or Rousseau. It is a convincing refutation, if one is needed, of any lingering suspicions that the tradition of English-speaking political philosophy might be dead. Indeed, his book might plausibly be claimed to be the most notable contribution to that tradition to have been published since Sidgwick and Mill.
Times Literary Supplement
Enlightenment comes in various forms, sometimes even by means of books. And it is a pleasure to recommend…an indigenous American philosophical masterpiece of the first order… I mean…to press my recommendation of [this book] to non-philosophers, especially those holding positions of responsibility in law and government. For the topic with which it deals is central to this country’s purposes, and the misunderstanding of that topic is central to its difficulties… And the central idea is simple, elegant, plausible, and easily applied by anybody at any time as a measure of the justice of his own actions.
Peter Caws
New Republic
With the simple carpentry of its arguments, its egalitarian leanings, and its preoccupation with fairness, Rawls’s classic 1971 work, A Theory of Justice, is as American a book as, say, Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Will Blythe
Civilization
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