ABSTRACT
John Rawls set out most of his main ideas on justice in the text A Theory of Justice (1972), although he elaborated on these in subsequent other writings. In particular, a restatement of his argument is presented in Political Liberalism (1993). His theory can be described as contractarian and libertarian, in that it regards society as being based on a social contract, and in that it emphasises the liberty of the individual. Rawls regards the status and interests of the individual as being more important than the goals which a society may have and seek to achieve. It is for this reason that he is generally very critical of Utilitarianism and other approaches to the question of justice, which emphasise social goals at the expense of individual rights. Indeed, in A Theory of Justice, Rawls sets out to articulate a set of principles of justice which, he argues, are superior to both Classical and Average Utilitarianism, in that they will accord better with both our intuitive and our considered moral judgments about what is just and what is not, in respect of our position vis à vis social structures and their operation.
