Analytic & pragmatist · 1971 – today
Liberal theories of justice (Rawls and after)
A just society is one whose basic institutions free and equal people could agree to: protecting basic liberties, and allowing inequalities only when they benefit the worst-off.
What principles should govern a fair society?
By the 1960s utilitarianism dominated Anglo-American moral and political thought, while the civil-rights movement and arguments over the welfare state made justice an urgent question. Rawls revived the social-contract tradition to show what utilitarianism missed: that each person’s life is separate and cannot simply be traded off for a larger total.
Imagine choosing the rules of society behind a “veil of ignorance”, not knowing your class, talents, race or idea of the good life. Rational people would secure equal basic liberties and accept inequalities only if they help the least advantaged (the “difference principle”). Nozick objected that any such pattern violates people’s rights to what they freely acquire; Nussbaum, with Amartya Sen, asked instead what people are actually able to do and to be.
- Justice is the first virtue of social institutions.
- Fair principles are those chosen behind a veil of ignorance.
- Rights and capabilities matter, not just total welfare.
It revived political philosophy as a field and supplied the vocabulary of today’s debates on welfare, rights and global justice; the capabilities approach influenced the UN’s Human Development Index.
Thinkers
1921–2002John RawlsHarvard philosopher who revived political philosophy with justice as fairness1938–2002Robert NozickHarvard libertarian who answered Rawlsborn 1947Martha NussbaumChicago philosopher of the capabilities approach and the emotionsKey texts
Where it came from
Grew out ofSocial contract theoryRawls said he aimed to carry the social contract of Locke, Rousseau and Kant to a higher level of abstraction; Nozick built on Locke’s natural rights.Grew out of
Kant’s critical philosophyRawls offered a “Kantian interpretation” of justice as fairness: the original position models persons as free and equal rational agents.Reacted against
UtilitarianismA Theory of Justice was written as an alternative to utilitarianism, which Rawls said “does not take seriously the distinction between persons”.
Its answers to the big questions
PoliticsWhat makes power legitimate?Principles we would choose behind a veil of ignorance about our own place in society.On the record
The school links to the article on A Theory of Justice because there is no dedicated article.
English Wikipedia has no article titled “Liberal egalitarianism” (the page returns 404); Rawls’s A Theory of Justice is the founding text of the debate, so the link is kept.
Sources: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “Egalitarianism”