ABSTRACT
The general facts about human nature and society that constrain the conception of the person and of the well-ordered society constitute the most fundamental presuppositions for the conception of equality and jus tice evoked in Rawls’s scheme. The most general of these facts are encap sulated in what Rawls, invoking Hume, calls the circumstances o f justice. These are either objective or subjective (Rawls 1971, 126-27; Rawls 1980, 536). Because each is so basic, the fact that Rawls overlooks an important circumstance has serious consequences for the whole theory.
