Rawls Quotes Flashcards
Social Contract
“Carries to a higher level of abstraction the familiar theory of the social contract as found, say, in Locke, Rousseau and Kant”
Utilitarianism
“Fails to take seriously the distinction between persons”
“Mistakes impersonality for impartiality”
Contractualism not Contractarianism
“To each according to his threat advantage does not count as a principle of justice”
Kant
A “procedural interpretation of Kant’s conception of autonomy and the categorical imperative”
Unencumbered self
“The self is prior to the ends which are affirmed by it”
Rights
“Each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override”
Domain of Justice
“Justice is the first virtue of social institutions”
The political “is distinct from the personal and the familial which are affectional … in ways the political is not”
Society
“Society is interpreted as a cooperative venture for mutual advantage”
Natural Endowments
“The natural distribution is neither just nor unjust … what is just or unjust is the way social institutions deal with these facts”
“No one deserves his greater natural capacity, nor merits a more favourable starting place in society”
“Common asset”
Public Reason
“First of all, principles should be general”
“Ideal legislators do not vote their interests”
Egalitarianism
“The disparities likely to result will be much less than men have often tolerated in the past”
Fair Equality of Opportunity
“Usefulness to persons of their liberty”
