ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author discusses John Rawls and the law in a different way: about Rawls as himself a legal philosopher and, indeed, lawyer. Rawls said a good deal about truth and objectivity, some of it inconclusive and even obscure, but much of it helpful when lawyers turn to these more explicitly philosophical issues. Rawls's doctrine of public reason is devoted exactly to defining the kinds of arguments that are permissible for officials in a politically liberal community, and he insists that the doctrine applies with particular stringency to judges. Rawls's own conception of justice as fairness depends critically on what seem to be controversial moral positions. In Political Liberalism, Rawls identified a conception of objectivity that he believed suitable to political claims, and much of what he said holds for controversial claims of law as well.
