ABSTRACT
Utilitarianism occupies a central place in the moral philosophy of our time. It is not the view which most people hold; certainly there are very few who would claim to be act utilitarians. The possibility will remain that normative utilitarianism can be established on other grounds, for example as the normative outcome of contractualism itself. According to contractualism, the source of motivation that is directly triggered by the belief that an action is wrong is the desire to be able to justify one’s actions to others on grounds they could not reasonably reject. In particular, contractualism can account for the apparent moral significance of facts about individual well-being, which utilitarianism takes to be fundamental. John Rawls’ argument is intended to move from the informal contractualist idea of principles ‘acceptable to all’ to the idea of rational choice behind a veil of ignorance, an idea which is, he hopes, more precise and more capable of yielding definite results.
