John Rawls
American · 1921–2002
American political philosopher whose magnum opus A Theory of Justice revived social contract theory and established the framework of justice as fairness, becoming the most influential work of political philosophy in the twentieth century.
Wikipedia ↗“Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought. A theory however elegant and economical must be rejected or revised if it is untrue; likewise laws and institutions no matter how efficient and well-arranged must be reformed or abolished if they are unjust.”
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“No one deserves his greater natural capacity nor merits a more favorable starting place in society. But it does not follow that one should eliminate these distinctions. Instead, the basic structure can be arranged so that these contingencies work for the good of the least fortunate.”
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“The veil of ignorance ensures that no one is advantaged or disadvantaged in the choice of principles by the outcome of natural chance or the contingency of social circumstances. Since all are similarly situated and no one is able to design principles to favor his particular condition, the principles of justice are the result of a fair agreement.”
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“Each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override. For this reason justice denies that the loss of freedom for some is made right by a greater good shared by others.”
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“Social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they are both reasonably expected to be to everyone's advantage, and attached to positions and offices open to all.”
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“A just society is a society that if you knew everything about it, you'd be willing to enter it in a random place.”
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Popular paraphrase of Rawls's "veil of ignorance" concept from A Theory of Justice, not a direct quotation.
“In a well-ordered society, citizens know and accept the same principles of justice, and the basic social institutions satisfy and are known to satisfy these principles.”
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“The most reasonable political conception of justice for a democratic regime will be, broadly speaking, liberal. This means that it protects the familiar basic rights and assigns them a special priority.”
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