John Rawls vs Karl Marx
Rawls and Marx are the two most influential figures in the modern philosophical analysis of distributive justice, with Marx providing the great nineteenth-century critique of capitalism and Rawls the great twentieth-century liberal-egalitarian alternative. Reading them together frames the central question of political philosophy in our time.
At a glance
| John Rawls | Karl Marx | |
|---|---|---|
| Dates | 1921 – 2002 | 1818 – 1883 |
| Nationality | American | German |
| Era | Contemporary | Modern |
| Movements | Political Philosophy, Analytic Philosophy, Social Contract | Marxism, Continental Philosophy |
| Profile | John Rawls → | Karl Marx → |
Where they agree
Both held that the distribution of wealth and life-chances under modern capitalism is morally indefensible, both held that political philosophy must address the actual conditions of social cooperation rather than abstract ideal types, and both took the analysis of class, advantage, and the basic structure of society as central. Rawls knew Marx's work and explicitly engaged it in his late lectures.
Where they disagree
Marx held that capitalism is structurally exploitative and cannot be made just by redistribution: the wage relation is itself the source of injustice, and only the abolition of class society resolves the problem. Rawls held that capitalism with redistributive taxation, robust public institutions, and protection of basic liberties can be made just — what he called a property-owning democracy or, alternatively, a liberal socialism. Where Marx's analysis is revolutionary and tied to historical materialism, Rawls's is reformist and grounded in hypothetical contractarian reasoning.
Representative quotes
John Rawls
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“The principles of justice are chosen behind a veil of ignorance.”
Chapter I, Section 3, pg. 12 -
“Each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive basic liberty compatible with a similar liberty for others.”
Chapter II, Section 11, pg. 60 -
“Social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they are both reasonably expected to be to everyone's advantage, and attached to positions and offices open to all.”
Chapter II, Section 11, pg. 60
Karl Marx
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“The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point, however, is to change it.”
Die Philosophen haben die Welt nur verschieden interpretirt; es kommt aber darauf an, sie zu verändern. -
“From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.”
In a higher phase of communist society, after the enslaving subordination of the individual to the division of labor, and therewith also the antithesis between mental and physical labor, has vanished; after labor has become not only a means of life but life's prime want; after the productive forces have also increased with the all-around development of the individual, and all the springs of co-ope -
“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.”
As quoted in The Communist Manifesto (1848), p.2
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- Full profile: John Rawls
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