Liberté, Égalité, Sororité: How Care Ethics Informs
Liberté, Égalité, Sororité: How Care Ethics Informs

Routledge: Kantian Ethics
Routledge: Kantian Ethics

... not obtain binding under conditions that actually obtain? In A Theory of Justice Rawls argues that principles that would be so agreed are binding in other situations because they cohere, or form a ‘reflective equilibrium’ with ‘our considered judgments’ (see Moral justification §2). Principles are j ...
Archetypes of Wisdom
Archetypes of Wisdom

... It is important to note that Kant conceives of the good will as a component of rationality, the only thing which is “good in itself.” Kant argues that “ought implies can” – by which he means it must be possible for human beings to live up to their moral obligations (since circumstances can prevent u ...
Ethics and Business Ethics
Ethics and Business Ethics

... get worse than before. Second part, called as principle of fair equality of opportunity, argues that every individual be given an equal opportunity to qualify for the more privileged positions in society’s institutions. ...
Chapter 3 – Nonconsequentialist Theories of Morality
Chapter 3 – Nonconsequentialist Theories of Morality

... educate the virtues creating virtuous people and moral problems are solved. John Rawls and the Theory of Justice John Rawls (1921-2002) is another prominent nonconsequentialist, especially his ‘Theory of Justice’. Natural rights versus rights of a just society In the tradition from Locke to Nozick, ...
Chapter One: Moral Reasons
Chapter One: Moral Reasons

... merely as a means – The idea of the will of every rational being as making universal law ...

John Rawls

John Bordley Rawls (/rɔːlz/; February 21, 1921 – November 24, 2002) was an American moral and political philosopher. He held the James Bryant Conant University Professorship at Harvard University and the Fulbright Fellowship at Christ Church, Oxford. Rawls received both the Schock Prize for Logic and Philosophy and the National Humanities Medal in 1999, the latter presented by President Bill Clinton, in recognition of how Rawls's work ""helped a whole generation of learned Americans revive their faith in democracy itself.""His magnum opus, A Theory of Justice (1971), was said at the time of its publication to be ""the most important work in moral philosophy since the end of World War II"" and is now regarded as ""one of the primary texts in political philosophy"". His work in political philosophy, dubbed Rawlsianism, takes as its starting point the argument that ""the most reasonable principles of justice are those everyone would accept and agree to from a fair position"". Rawls attempts to determine the principles of social justice by employing a number of thought experiments such as the famous original position in which everyone is impartially situated as equals behind a veil of ignorance. He is one of the major thinkers in the tradition of liberal political philosophy. According to English philosopher Jonathan Wolff, while there could be a ""dispute about the second most important political philosopher of the 20th century, there could be no dispute about the most important: John Rawls"".