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A review by generalheff
A Theory of Justice by John Rawls
3.0
An extremely interesting take on the contract tradition, this book suffers from the back two thirds of the book that deal with the conception of the good as the rational and the good of the sense of justice.
Where the first part of the book introduces a great tool for thinking about how to justify institutions or states of society in general (the famous original position and veil of ignorance), the second part seems to invoke too many assumptions and jumps, all to tie the various pieces of Rawls’ theory together in a neat package. It’s a shame the book felt so padded in this way as is a great work aside from this and I suppose it is no wonder that the primary aspects of the book that people comment on are the ones just mentioned rather than the development of our sense of justice and the moral theory more explicitly built up later in the book.
Despite its flaws, a partly worthwhile read that certainly makes you approach problems in a new way - always a plus in a piece of political philosophy.
Where the first part of the book introduces a great tool for thinking about how to justify institutions or states of society in general (the famous original position and veil of ignorance), the second part seems to invoke too many assumptions and jumps, all to tie the various pieces of Rawls’ theory together in a neat package. It’s a shame the book felt so padded in this way as is a great work aside from this and I suppose it is no wonder that the primary aspects of the book that people comment on are the ones just mentioned rather than the development of our sense of justice and the moral theory more explicitly built up later in the book.
Despite its flaws, a partly worthwhile read that certainly makes you approach problems in a new way - always a plus in a piece of political philosophy.