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Title: A Theory of Justice (Belknap) by John Rawls ISBN: 0-674-00078-1 Publisher: Belknap Pr Pub. Date: September, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.63 (38 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Not for the Beach
Comment: A modern social contract theorist, John Rawls argues that the principles of justice should be selected from behind a "veil of ignorance" that prevents the parties from knowing their class positions, natural abilities, religious identities, and so forth. With the parties shielded from bias and arbitrary influences, Rawls believes that they will chose to protect core civil liberties and to tolerate only those social inequalities that leaves less-advantaged groups better off than they would be otherwise. Once it lodges in the mind, the argument of A Theory of Justice illuminates a remarkable range of political, legal, philosophical, and economic issues. Every educated person should read the book -- but he should be warned that it is very long and that Rawls' writing is constipated and repetitive. A Theory of Justice is a classic that cries out for an intelligent abridgement.
Rating: 4
Summary: The starting point for contemporary political philosophy
Comment: It seems as though an enormous number of the reviews here are from amateur philosophers who rate the book according to how closely they agree with its conclusions, and if the level of agreement is low, go on to give an argument (usually involving a shallow misreading of Rawls) instead of a review. I suggest not taking these into account too heavily. FWIW, I'm among those who thinks Nozick's response to Rawls is brutally on target -- but ToJ is nevertheless a subtle and important piece of political philosophy. If anything, the book is valuable precisely because in seeing why it goes wrong (which is hardly as simple as some of the other reviews make it sound) we get a clearer notion of what features an adequate account of justice would need to have.
Rather than accepting some glib dismissal, I suggest picking up the book and grappling with the arguments yourself. Rawls is not exactly exciting to read (as opposed to, say, Nozick) but this is in part because he is admirably rigorous and methodical, taking pains to distinguish opposed views (he considers several different versions of Utilitarianism, for example, rather than treating it as a monolithic theory) and outline precisely how and why they differ from his own. Whether or not you agree with his conclusions, ToJ is absolutely a prerequisite for almost any serious engagement with contemporary political philosophy, which takes place very much in the shadow of Rawls.
Rating: 4
Summary: The Soul of Liberalism
Comment: Rawls' book is the Bible of Modern liberalism....a Kantian view of justice. Most critics and admirers put a disproportinate amount of emphasis on his so-called "difference principle," the idea that the least advantaged ought to benefit from any improvment in the station of the most advanataged. A more important and oft overlooked principle, however, is one to which Rawls gives precedence, namely, individual liberty. For those who are looking for a better sysnthesis of both Rawls' and Robert Nozick's most important ideas on liberty, read Michael Berumen's Do No Evil: Ethics with Applications to Economic Theory. Berumen does a much better job of giving a philsophical justification for liberty, democracy, and capitalism.
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Title: Anarchy, State and Utopia by Robert Nozick ISBN: 0465097200 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: October, 1977 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: Political Liberalism by John Rawls ISBN: 0231052499 Publisher: Columbia University Press Pub. Date: 15 April, 1995 List Price(USD): $22.50 |
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Title: Justice as Fairness: A Restatement by John Rawls, Erin Kelly ISBN: 0674005112 Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr Pub. Date: May, 2001 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: The Law of Peoples by John Rawls ISBN: 0674005422 Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr Pub. Date: March, 2001 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Collected Papers by John Rawls, Samuel Freeman ISBN: 0674005694 Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr Pub. Date: March, 2001 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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