Rawls’s Theory of Justice

A Theory of Justice

In A Theory of Justice Rawls argues that the primary task of social and political institutions is the preservation and enhancement of social justice, which he understands to include both principles of individual liberty and principles of well-being or welfare. Rawls tries to develop a procedure called the original position that would yield principles of justice. These principles of justice would then serve as guides in the construction and evaluation of social and political institutions.

Rawls does not view people as naive moralists searching for a utopian ideal. Rather, they are sufficiently self-interested to wish to pursue their own individual interests or those of their families and loved ones. Given inevitably competing interests and conflicts, Rawls attempts to provide a procedure that will ...