ABSTRACT
The idea of a sense of justice plays two basic roles in A Theory of Justice. First, Rawls characterizes justice as fairness itself as an attempt to describe our sense of justice in reflective equilibrium. Second, he provides an account of the psychological development of a sense of justice in individuals in a well-ordered society. The latter is part of his argument for the stability of a well-ordered society of justice as fairness with the other component being his argument for the congruence of the right and the good. Both parts of the stability argument rely on both empirical and normative claims (without undermining the distinction between them). Understanding how the moral psychology that Rawls describes sets the stage for the congruence argument helps to clarify the nature of reflective equilibrium and how Rawls understands moral justification.
