80 pages • 2 hours read
John RawlsA Theory of Justice
Nonfiction | Reference/Text Book | Adult | Published in 1971A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Philosophical Context: Utilitarianism
Rawls’s work marked a significant shift away from utilitarianism, which was the predominant political theory in the United States and Great Britain during the 19th and 20th centuries. Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that holds that the best action is the one that maximizes overall happiness, or utility. Developed by English philosophers Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill in the mid-19th century, utilitarianism is grounded in the principle of creating the greatest good for the greatest number of people. It is a form of consequentialism, meaning that the moral value of an action is determined by its outcomes or consequences. According to utilitarianism, an action is morally right if it leads to the greatest amount of happiness or the least amount of suffering for the majority of people. This approach emphasizes the well-being of society as a whole rather than focusing on individual rights or duties.
There are different forms of utilitarianism, including act utilitarianism, which assesses each individual action by its ability to produce happiness, and rule utilitarianism, which evaluates the morality of actions based on whether they adhere to rules that generally promote the greatest good. While utilitarianism has a straightforward and pragmatic approach to ethics, it also potentially justifies actions that harm individuals or minority groups if such actions result in greater overall happiness.
Historical Context: 20th-century Political Philosophy
In A Theory of Justice, Rawls moves away from utilitarianism’s focus on maximizing overall happiness. Instead, he argues for two principles of justice: the liberty principle, which guarantees fundamental rights and liberties, and the difference principle, which allows for social and economic inequalities only if they benefit the least-advantaged members of society. These ideas were part of a broader movement in 20th-century political philosophy that sought to balance individual freedoms with social justice, reflecting the democratic values that became increasingly important in post-World War II thought.
Rawls’s theories also influenced a resurgence in social contract theory, positioning him within a tradition that dates back to figures like English philosopher John Locke, French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and German philosopher Immanuel Kant. However, his work also diverged from these predecessors’ by incorporating a modern understanding of social and economic inequalities and by offering a more structured method for determining the principles of justice.
Rawls’s impact extended beyond academic philosophy, influencing law, economics, and public policy in the late 20th century. His work provided a foundation for subsequent discussions about distributive justice, the role of the state, and the moral foundations of democracy in the United States, influencing 21st-century social justice movements.
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