John Rawls
1921 – 2002 · Baltimore; Harvard
The most influential political philosopher of the twentieth century, who asked what rules we would choose if we did not know who we would be.
Key ideas
In A Theory of Justice, Rawls revived the social contract tradition. Imagine choosing the basic principles of your society from behind a the veil of ignorance: you do not know your class, talents, sex, race or ideas of the good life. Principles chosen in this original position would be fair, because no one could tailor them to their own advantage.
He argued that people in this position would choose two principles: equal basic liberties for all, and the difference principle, which permits social and economic inequalities only if they benefit the least advantaged. He defended this partly by the maximin rule of choosing under uncertainty, and partly as a critique of utilitarianism, which he said fails to take seriously the distinction between persons.
His later Political Liberalism asked how citizens with deeply different religious and moral views can share a stable and just society.
Life, briefly
Rawls grew up in Baltimore, where two of his younger brothers died of illnesses caught from him. He served as an infantryman in the Pacific in the Second World War, an experience that ended his plans to enter the church. He taught at Harvard for almost forty years and was known as an unusually modest and generous colleague.
Major works
- A Theory of Justice (1971)
- Political Liberalism (1993)
- The Law of Peoples (1999)
- Justice as Fairness: A Restatement (2001)
Appears in
Further reading
- EncyclopediaStanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: John Rawls
- WikipediaJohn Rawls