Reading Rawls: Critical Studies on Rawls' 'A Theory of Justice'

by Norman Daniels (Editor)

First published in 1975, this collection includes many of the best critical responses to John Rawls' A Theory of Justice , and the editor has elected to reissue the book without making any substitutions. As he argues in his new preface, the variety of issues raise in the original papers has been a major part of the book's appeal. He also acknowledges that no modest revision of this book could pretend to respond adequately to the considerable elaboration and evolution of Rawls' theory in the last fifteen years. Political philosophy has been one of the most exciting areas of philosophical activity in the years since A Theory of Justice , and much of that activity has been a response to Rawls' work. In his preface, the editor suggests how some of the insights and criticisms contained in the collection have had a bearing on developments in Rawls' theory and in political philosophy more generally, and that fresh reading of each of them reveals additional important points that have not yet received adequate attention. The contributors Benjamin Barber, Norman Daniels, Gerald Dworkin, Ronald Dworkin, Joel Feinberg, Milton Fisk, R.M. Hare, H.L.A. Hart, David Lyons, Frank Michelman, Richard Miller, Thomas Nagel, T.M. Scanlon, and A.K. Sen.

Genres: Philosophy, Politics, Social Justice, Health Care

407 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

Reviews

[Leonardo]

Citado en "Equality of What", Sen.

[Bookshark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent collection of critical essays on Theory of Justice by some of the best thinkers of the era. Worth reading even if, or perhaps especially if, you are skeptical of Rawls.

Get the newer edition, though. The binding on the original editions falls apart easily.

[Bernard English · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Theory of Justice is the only competitor to the philosophy of language's impact on 20th century philosophy according to John Searle. At its crudest, Rawl's breakthrough thought experiment is to ask what kind of society you wish to be born into without any knowledge of what kind of person you will be, what he refers to as "the veil of ignorance," but with general knowledge of mankind in the abstract. I though it was a straightforward enough idea and in fact brilliant. But these essays made it clear that there's much to consider about his suggestion and it is by no means as coherent a view as might first appear. It would be better to read the book before tackling these essays, but I suppose the various authors give enough of the background to make it readable without have waded through A Theory of Justice's almost 600 pages.

[Kainoa Gilding · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal and enlightening. Could leave you questioning the intelligence of human design