Collected Papers

by John Rawls, Samuel Freeman (Editor)

John Rawls’s work on justice has drawn more commentary and aroused wider attention than any other work in moral or political philosophy in the twentieth century. Rawls is the author of two major treatises, A Theory of Justice (1971) and Political Liberalism (1993); it is said that A Theory of Justice revived political philosophy in the English-speaking world.

But before and after writing his great treatises Rawls produced a steady stream of essays. Some of these essays articulate views of justice and liberalism distinct from those found in the two books. They are important in and of themselves because of the deep issues about the nature of justice, moral reasoning, and liberalism they raise as well as for the light they shed on the evolution of Rawls’s views. Some of the articles tackle issues not addressed in either book. They help identify some of the paths open to liberal theorists of justice and some of the knotty problems which liberal theorists must seek to resolve.

A complete collection of John Rawls’s essays is long overdue.

Genres: Philosophy, Politics, Law, Nonfiction

672 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

John Bordley Rawls was an American philosopher and a leading figure in moral and political philosophy. He held the James Bryant Conant University Professorship at Harvard. His magnum opus A Theory of Justice (1971) is now regarded as "one of the primary texts in political philosophy." His work in political philosophy, dubbed Rawlsianism, takes as its starting point the argument that "most reasonable principles of justice are those everyone would accept and agree to from a fair position." Rawls employs a number of thought experiments—including the famous veil of ignorance—to determine what constitutes a fair agreement in which "everyone is impartially situated as equals," in order to determine principles of social justice.

Rawls received both the Schock Prize for Logic and Philosophy and the National Humanities Medal in 1999, the latter presented by President Bill Clinton, in recognition of how Rawls's thought "helped a whole generation of learned Americans revive their faith in democracy itself."

Reviews

[Shawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whew, this was challenging to comprehend, and much of it was abstract & ambiguous, but the collection as a whole carries the impression of having peered at Justice, Fairness, and Reason, through an electron microscope. Rawls' intellect is very impressive (and outright superior, to mine, at least). He's a man comfortable debating about or referencing from philosophers with aplomb.

This is chock-full of terminology one has to imbibe. It gets real technical, in a sense, and both the densely but perfectly crafted sentences and the sheer complexity of the subject of justice can prove overwhelming. But it's divided into papers/essays, so one can take the strategy of reading one a day (or reading session). This collections is wonderful to own for reference. And Rawls thoughts & stances can be traced over the years. The last chapter (the interview) was rewarding, for it got specific & plain of words, with Rawls basically saying, Hey guys, do you have a better theory of how we can all get along?

It's very challenging, deeply analytical, and not really accessible to lay readers. But law students, political scientists, philosophers, law enforcement agencies, international aid agencies, international councils, armies, diplomats, etc. can all find this book to be absolutely indispensable. It seems to cover everything in wording that is meant to stand the test of time and of traditional criticisms. Hard to comprehend but rewarding and enlightening.

[Saeid · Rating 4 out of 5]

the best general introduction to rawls's political thoght progress...

[LJ]

A great find at the library the other day- can't wait to read this over the week-end, :-)