Knowra Rawlsian justice Rawlsian justice Rawlsian justice is John Rawls’s account of a fair social order, grounded in equal basic liberties and principles people would choose without knowing their social position.
Original position : A hypothetical choice situation in which representatives select principles for society without knowing their own circumstances. It models the fair agreement from which Rawls derives principles of justice.
Basic liberties : Fundamental freedoms such as political participation, conscience, expression, and personal liberty. Their equal protection has priority in Rawls’s first principle of justice.
Utilitarianism : A moral theory that assesses actions or institutions by their contribution to aggregate welfare. Rawls rejects sacrificing some people’s basic liberties merely to increase total social welfare.
Justice as fairness : Rawls’s name for a political conception of justice based on fair terms of cooperation among free and equal citizens. It frames Rawlsian principles as standards for a society’s cooperative institutions.
Veil of ignorance : A constraint that withholds information about parties’ identities and social positions when they choose principles. It prevents principles from favoring anyone’s known class, talents, or conception of the good.
Fair equality of opportunity : A standard requiring people with similar ability and motivation to have comparable prospects regardless of social origin. It is one condition Rawls imposes before inequalities can be justified by the difference principle.
Libertarianism : A political philosophy that gives strong priority to individual rights, private property, and limited government. Libertarian theories dispute Rawls’s redistributive principles and account of property.
A Theory of Justice : John Rawls’s 1971 book presenting justice as fairness and its principles for society’s basic structure. This work established the central argument and terminology of Rawlsian justice.
Two principles of justice : Rawls’s principles requiring equal basic liberties and permitting inequalities only under specified conditions. They state the institutional standards selected in the original position.
Primary goods : General-purpose means, including rights, opportunities, income, wealth, and self-respect, that people need to pursue life plans. Rawls evaluates social prospects partly by how institutions distribute these goods.
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