John Rawls' A Theory of Justice stands as the single most important work in the Anglo-American liberal tradition after World War II. In A Theory of Justice, Rawls revives the social contract doctrine in order to determine principles of justice that would be chosen by persons who are free and equal moral individuals. Since Rawls believes that no single conception of the good can establish justice in a pluralistic society, he posits a set of principles of right which are prior to any particular good. Thus his theory, which he calls "justice as fairness," is deontological. Since its publication in 1971, A Theory of Justice has generated extensive critical response from writers all along the philosophical spectrum.

Without doubt, John Rawls's A Theory of Justice is one of the most important statements of Anglo-American political philosophy in the twentieth century. Through a revival of the social contract device, Rawls formulates a set of principles of correct political association ("the right") that he argues must be considered as prior to any conception of the good. These principles apply to all persons as free and equal beings in society, but more importantly they assume some things about the nature of persons in that society. On the institutional aspect of his theory, Rawls conceives of the state as a neutral arbiter of the good. This, coupled with a conception of persons as individuals that affirm the values of autonomy and equality, has drawn extensive critical fire from philosophers within and without liberalism. One such group of critics, the communitarians, claim that Rawls's idea of the person is too abstract or "groundless" to account for shared values, and thus fails to appreciate the extent to which we understand ourselves as embedded within our culture. Michael Sandel has thus argued that Rawls's person so conceived is too abstract to be of any theoretical let alone practical use, while Alasdair Macintyre has argued that such a conception of persons is incoherent: liberal "persons" do not know themselves, and so they cannot know what is right or what is good. This thesis analyzes the liberal-communitarian debate by comparing and contrasting some terms used by both sides in the debate. By analyzing the terms, I will present a liberal conception of the person as properly understood in Rawls's theory. ' Rawls has not been idle since the publication of A Theory of Justice. He has defended his theory in a series of articles and lectures that have developed his position in response to these and other criticisms. Specifically, by positing his theory within liberal-democratic culture, by acknowledging individual formative conceptions of the good, and by emphasizing and relying upon a modus vivendi view as the basis for political liberalism and a liberal culture, Rawls has answered the communitarian objections by incorporating and responding to those pertinent criticisms. I will argue that Rawls's recent emphasis on a theory of political liberalism successfully accounts for his idea of persons because it accords with our considered moral principles, it treats persons as free and equal beings worthy of respect, and it incorporates the only coherent construction of the social embeddedness thesis to a greater degree than communitarians acknowledge or appreciate. Rawls's political liberalism thus surpasses this aspect of the communitarian critique.

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Akademisk avhandling : Filosofiska Institutionen : Stockholm : 1993. / Bibliogr. p. 137-142. Index.

John Rawls's political liberalism has shaped contemporary political philosophy. Three other theories, feminism, republicanism, and communitarianism, devote a good deal of space to refuting Rawls's theory, and claim to be superior alternatives to it. My main thesis is that they are not alternatives to Rawls's political liberalism but variations of it. That is, although these theories present themselves as external critiques of liberalism, they are ultimately internal critiques, because their own theories are built upon the basic principles of liberalism. This is not to deny that many of their criticisms are well-taken and thus need to be addressed by liberal theorists. I also argue that Rawls's theory of political liberalism is in general terms correct. It needs however to be revised in other to solve what I take to be its main problem: Its lack of a foundation. In my dissertation I propose a revised version of political liberalism, which includes an argument in support of the political liberal conception of justice.

This dissertation argues that Isaiah Berlin and John Rawls can be seen as seminal contributors to two quite distinct revivals of political theory in the latter half of the twentieth century. It suggests that coming to grips with the different underlying character of these revivals and writers is important to understanding political theory and liberalism today. However, while the importance Berlin's of Berlin's work is increasingly recognized, there remain puzzling controversies concerning its overall character and import and in particular concerning its relationship to the dominant forms of American political thought, and Rawls' work in particular. This dissertation offers a novel interpretation of Berlin's political thought and liberalism, and a preliminary exploration of its relationship with Rawls' political thought. / The reading of Berlin develops the following principal themes: (1) Berlin was a moderate but consistent historicist primarily concerned with the interpretive self-understanding of his own form of life; (2) Berlin was a strong but distinctive pluralist who argued for a limited but open-ended range of recognizable and rivalrous ultimate values and for an agitated equilibrium of these values in public life; (3) Berlin focused the bulk of his critical energy on defending an internally pluralistic range of traditionally liberal values within this agitated equilibrium, with an emphasis on liberty and pluralism. He nonetheless recognized that there were other equally ultimate values, not distinctively liberal, which were legitimate and deserving of consideration and even defense. Berlin's essential insight is into the contemporary rivalry of equally ultimate values revealed by the historicist exercise of the sympathetic imagination. / This interpretation of Berlin's thought suggests some deep points of dispute with Rawls' Political Liberalism, in particular over the regulative role of Rawls' political conception of justice in public reason. This dissertation argues that, when explored, these points of disagreement reveal two very different approaches to contemporary political thought, Berlin's grounded in an embrace of strong moral and political pluralism as the basis of political theory, and Rawls' grounded in an effort to tame such "simple" pluralism through the elaboration of a consensual normative framework of public life.

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Submitted by Elizabete Silva (elizabete.silva@ufes.br) on 2015-04-01T20:19:47Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) FABIO ROSCAGLIA PINTO.pdf: 935131 bytes, checksum: 2dcb38fdd83b4e0045cf901638f7c949 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Elizabete Silva (elizabete.silva@ufes.br) on 2015-04-09T19:25:02Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) FABIO ROSCAGLIA PINTO.pdf: 935131 bytes, checksum: 2dcb38fdd83b4e0045cf901638f7c949 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-09T19:25:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) FABIO ROSCAGLIA PINTO.pdf: 935131 bytes, checksum: 2dcb38fdd83b4e0045cf901638f7c949 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-07 / Esta dissertação tem como objetivo abordar a relação entre justiça e educação, mais especificadamente, entre a teoria da justiça como equidade que foi desenvolvida por John Rawls, na obra Uma Teoria da Justiça, e a Constituição Federal de 1988 e a Lei de Diretrizes e Bases da Educação Nacional – LDBEN que regem o direito à educação no Brasil. O trabalho foi desenvolvido por meio de pesquisa bibliográfica e documental, em que analisamos as duas principais legislações que dirigem a educação nacional e os escritos da teoria rawlsiana. Com este processo analítico percebemos que a teoria da justiça de Rawls foi fundamentada pela teoria do contrato social e, buscava estabelecer-se como alternativa à doutrina utilitarista. E, por ser uma teoria de grande amplitude, que buscava intervir nas sociedades democráticas, foi possível encontrar ideais educacionais nos escritos de John Rawls. Além disso, conseguimos estabelecer a relação entre os estágios de aplicação dos princípios da justiça e a importância das leis para os Estados democráticos. Por fim, percebemos que há relação direta entre diversas partes das duas legislações estudadas e os ideais de John Rawls, o que demonstra a influência que o liberalismo político anglo-saxão exerce sobre nossas normativas educacionais. / This thesis aims to address the relationship between justice and education, more specifically, between the theory of justice as fairness that was developed by John Rawls in A Theory of Justice work, and the Federal Constitution of 1988 and the Law of Guidelines and Bases of National education - LDBEN governing the right to education in Brazil. The work was developed through literature and documents, we analyze the two main laws that direct the national education and the writings of the Rawlsian theory. With this analytical process we realized that the theory of justice Rawls was founded by the social contract theory, and sought to establish themselves as an alternative to the utilitarian doctrine. And, being a theory of large amplitude, which sought to intervene in democratic societies, educational ideals were found in the writings of John Rawls. Furthermore, we established the relationship between the stages of implementation of the principles of justice and the importance of laws for democratic states. Finally, realize that there is a direct relationship between various parts of the two studied laws and ideals of John Rawls, which demonstrates the influence that political liberalism Anglo-Saxon has on our educational standards.

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This dissertation examines John Rawls’s doctrine of public reason in light of Thomas Reid’s Common Sense philosophy. Chapter 1 introduces the topics of public reason and common sense in order to suggest that Thomas Reid’s philosophy can provide a beneficial contribution to public policy debates. Chapter 2 examines key features of Rawls’s doctrine of public reason. Chapter 3 suggests that there are critical problems with Rawls’s doctrine of public reason. Chapter 4 examines key features of Thomas Reid’s common sense philosophy. Chapter 5 shows Reid’s common sense application in early American history as well as contemporary scholarship. It argues that common sense can provide insight into two test-cases, abortion and same-sex marriage. Chapter 6 concludes the dissertation, summarizing the arguments and providing suggestions for further research.