Unfortunately I believe that the text fails in this goal, since the arguments presented have many weaknesses and the conclusions found are unconvincing. The book is extremely ambitious, aiming at laying the ground of most moral and political philosophy. To this question he also answers in the affirmative, providing a number of developmental and psychological arguments. In addition, he analyzes whether such society would be stable, in the sense of whether individuals in such society would acquire and benefit from having the proposed sense of justice. Rawls then goes on to explore what type of society could implement these principles, finding that a constitutional democracy would be a possibility. An inequality of opportunity must enhance the opportunities of those with the lesser opportunity (p. P1 has priority over P2 and therefore the basic liberties can be restricted only for the sake of liberty: (a) a less extensive liberty must strengthen the total system of liberties shared by all (b) a less than equal liberty must be acceptable to those with the lesser liberty. In order to interpret those principles, two priority rules need to be applied: (a) to the greatest benefit of the least advantaged (b) attached to offices and positions open to all under conditions of fair equality of opportunity.īy “fair equality of opportunity” it is meant that “those who are at the same level of talent and ability, and have the same willingness to use them, should have the same prospects of success regardless of their initial place in the social system.” (p.

P2: Social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they are both: P1: Each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive total system of equal basic liberties compatible with a similar system of liberty for all. Moreover, he argues that this choice has a definite unique answer the principles chosen would be (p. For Rawls, social justice refers to the basic principles that organize a society these principles are just if they would be hypothetically chosen by the members of that society when they started from an initial position of equality and ignorance of their particular situation, interests and abilities (the original position).

In this book, John Rawls articulates an understanding of social justice.

Rawls 1999 a theory of justice