Abstract

A Theory of Justice elaborates and, in important respects, qualifies the views Rawls had been developing for two decades in a series of influential articles. It has been widely acclaimed as the most comprehensive and searching study of justice in a very long time, and it certainly is one of the rare works dealing seriously with a fundamental problem of general interest to be accorded the immediate and respectful attention it deserves. A considerable literature about many aspects of the theory is already at hand and, for some time to come, its impact is certain to continue to be felt in discussions of the theoretical issues it raises as well as in debates of public policies. For it sets out a remarkably detailed frame within which to order the many aspects of the problem of justice, and it brings abstruse theoretical inquiries to bear on such pressing practical questions as the equitable distribution of income, the meaning of equal opportunity in education, the bases of political obligation, and the bounds of legitimate civil disobedience. The position Rawls takes on these and similar issues has led some commentators to speak of his work as a tract for the times, an attempt at providing a theoretical basis for Fabian Socialism or the Great Society or mainstream liberal democratic sentiment generally. Such assessments, even when they are not intended to denigrate, do less than justice to his stated aim: to contribute to an understanding of the just society sub specie aeternitatis.