Famous John Rawls Quotes Explained
John Rawls was a 20th-century American political philosopher whose 1971 book A Theory of Justice is the most influential work of political philosophy of the post-war era. Rawls's <em>A Theory of Justice</em> (1971) reset Anglophone political philosophy. Below are eight of the most-quoted lines, with notes on where each fits in his system.
Attributed to John Rawls:
“Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought.”
What it means
The opening sentence of A Theory of Justice (1971). Rawls treats justice as the basic standard against which social institutions are evaluated, comparable to truth's role for theories: a theory may have other virtues, but if it is false it must be rejected, and the same is true of institutions and injustice.
Attributed to John Rawls:
“Each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override.”
What it means
From A Theory of Justice, Section 1. Rawls's anti-utilitarian thesis: persons are not aggregable units whose welfare can be totalled and traded off against each other. Each individual possesses a separate moral status that even an enormous overall gain cannot override.
“The principles of justice are chosen behind a veil of ignorance.”
Chapter I, Section 3, pg. 12
What it means
From A Theory of Justice, Section 3. Rawls's signature thought experiment: principles of justice are those that would be chosen by rational persons selecting from behind a veil that hides their own social position, talents, and conception of the good. The procedure is meant to model fairness.
“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
What it means
Rawls's First Principle of Justice, from A Theory of Justice, Section 11. Liberty is to be distributed equally and to be as extensive as is compatible with the same liberty for everyone else; the principle has lexical priority over the second principle dealing with social and economic inequalities.
“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
What it means
Rawls's Second Principle of Justice, also from Section 11 of A Theory of Justice. The two sub-clauses combine to require that inequalities work to the benefit of the worst-off (the "difference principle") and that the offices producing them be genuinely open to everyone under fair conditions.
Attributed to John Rawls:
“Civil disobedience is a public, nonviolent, conscientious yet political act contrary to law usually done with the aim of bringing about a change in the law or policies of the government.”
What it means
From A Theory of Justice, Section 55. Rawls offers a careful procedural definition of civil disobedience as part of his account of how citizens can address the failures of a nearly-just system without abandoning their allegiance to it. The conditions are public, non-violent, conscientious, and directed at majority opinion.
Attributed to John Rawls:
“Liberty for the less articulate is enhanced by the strict enforcement of equal liberty.”
What it means
From A Theory of Justice. Rawls's argument is that equal political liberty actually serves those whose private resources for speech and influence are weakest; weakening the formal protections always disadvantages the least articulate before it disadvantages anyone else.
Attributed to John Rawls:
“Reasonable persons see that the burdens of judgement set limits on what can be reasonably justified to others.”
What it means
From Political Liberalism (1993), Rawls's later work. The "burdens of judgement" are the obstacles — empirical, normative, interpretive — that prevent reasonable persons from reaching the same conclusions on contested matters. Recognising them is the basis for Rawls's account of public reason.