Short description
This text originated as lectures for a course on political philosophy that John Rawls taught regularly at Harvard in the 1980s. In time the lectures became a restatement of his theory of justice as fairness, revised in light of his more recent papers and his treatise Political Liberalism.
Long description
This volume originated as lectures for a course on political philosophy that Rawls taught regularly at Harvard in the 1980s. In time the lectures became a restatement of his theory of justice as fairness, revised in light of his more recent papers and his treatise Political Liberalism (1993). John Rawls offers a broad overview of his main lines of thought and also explores specific issues never before addressed in any of his writings. Rawls is well aware that since the publication of "A Theory of Justice" in 1971, American society has moved farther away from the idea of justice as fairness. Yet his ideas retain their power and relevance to debates in a pluralistic society about the meaning and theoretical viability of liberalism. This book demonstrates that moral clarity can be achieved even when a collective commitment to justice is uncertain.
Review
Rawls is one of the two or three most important political thinkers of the 20th century. His accounts of 'justice as fairness' and of 'political liberalism' are among the most widely discussed and cited in the field of political philosophy...[ Justice as Fairness ] provides an integrated statement of his political theory, drawing together and presenting in a unified way, and for the first time, the major arguments and both strands of his work. Even though it is a challenging volume, it will no doubt be the principal introduction to his thinking...An essential text. -- J. D. Moon Choice (11/01/2001)