ABSTRACT
John Rawls' Second Principle of Justice deals with social and economic inequalities, rather than with inequalities of liberty. This chapter deals with the first part of the principle, which Rawls calls 'The Difference Principle' which requires society to arrange social and economic inequalities so that they can reasonably expected to be to everyone's advantage. Rawls makes a distinction between 'liberty' and 'the worth of liberty'. According to him, the worth of liberty is a function of one's capacity to further one's ends, either at the individual or group level, within the complete system of liberties of equal citizenship. Impartialism, however, sees the worth of liberty and liberty itself as inextricably linked when it comes to the enabling rights and the rights-protecting system. Rawls thinks of the primary goods as things that every rational person can be assumed to want. The most important of these are, in his view, rights and liberties, powers and opportunities, income and wealth and self respect.
