The natural distribution is neither just nor unjust; nor is it unjust that persons are born into society at some particular position.… — John Rawls Copy Share Image
A scheme is unjust when the higher expectations, one or more of them, are excessive. If these expectations were decreased, the situation… — John Rawls Copy Share Image
Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought. A theory however elegant and economical must… — John Rawls Copy Share Image
Any comprehensive doctrine, religious or secular, can be introduced into any political argument at any time, but I argue that people who do this… — John Rawls Copy Share Image
First of all, principles should be general. That is, it must be possible to formulate them without use of what would be intuitively recognized… — John Rawls Copy Share Image
A political conception just applies to the basic structure of a society, its institutions, constitutional essentials, matters of basic justice and property, and so… — John Rawls Copy Share Image
If you compare the United States with Europe, my view is that what happened in Europe is that the church became deeply distrusted by… — John Rawls Copy Share Image
Political philosophy is realistically utopian when it extends what are ordinarily thought to be the limits of practicable political possibility and, in so doing,… — John Rawls Copy Share Image
The intolerant can be viewed as free-riders, as persons who seek the advantages of just institutions while not doing their share to uphold them. — John Rawls Copy Share Image
Of course, we know that not everyone agrees with assisted suicide, but people might agree that one has the right to it, even if… — John Rawls Copy Share Image
When the basic structure of society is publicly known to satisfy its principles for an extended period of time, those subject to these arrangements… — John Rawls Copy Share Image
“Luther and Calvin were as dogmatic and intolerant as the Church had been. For those who had to decide whether to become Protestant or… — John Rawls Copy Share Image
We may suppose that everyone has in himself the whole form of a moral conception. — John Rawls Copy Share Image
Citizens can have their own grounding in their comprehensive doctrines, whatever they happen to be. — John Rawls Copy Share Image
