A Theory of Justice
by John Rawls
5/5
Belknap Press 560 pages September 30, 1999
John Rawls's 1971 masterwork reframed political philosophy for the twentieth century. The "veil of ignorance" thought experiment — design the rules of society without knowing where you'll land in it — has become a standard tool in legal, political, and moral reasoning.
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Jim's Review
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Rawls is the most influential American political philosopher of the 20th century, and this is his book. The thesis — that a just society is one whose rules you would agree to from behind a "veil of ignorance," not knowing whether you'd be born rich or poor, smart or not, healthy or sick — is now so deeply embedded in liberal political thought it sounds like common sense. It was not common sense when he wrote it. Rawls argued against the utilitarianism that dominated mid-century American moral philosophy and rebuilt the case for individual rights on contractarian grounds. Five worms for the argument; three worms for the prose, which is precise but heavy going. The single most important law-adjacent philosophy book of the modern era.
Jim's Weekly Worm Hole
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