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Justice As Fairness

• John Rawls states the purpose of his treatise: to re-establish the philosophical basis for Justice with what he calls the 'Justice as Fairness' argument. He believes that much of the previous philosophical debates fail to provide a correct foundation for theories of Justice.

• Justice, in Rawl's view, is necessary for society because it allows the society to distribute the burdens and the advantages of society fairly (i.e: How do we determine who is taxed to a greater or lesser extent? Should one person work longer hours than another? These are questions of fairness).

• Instead of coming from a moral, divine or universal source, Justice for Rawls is a necessary composite for a well-ordered society. He notes that there are, in fact, not many well-ordered and stable societies and so therefore there are not many Just ones. In short: if a society is to become...

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