CRIM 338 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Political Liberalism, Equal Protection Clause, Political Philosophy
30 Mar 2019
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Document Summary
Justice is first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought. Theory however elegant & economical must be rejected/revised if it is untrue, unlike laws & institutions no matter & well-arranged must be reformed/abolished if they are unjust. Each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even welfare of society as whole cannot override. For this reason, justice denies that loss of freedom for some is made right by greater good shared by others. Taught at harvard from 1962-1991, when he retired from teaching. 2 major works: a theory of justice (1971, revised 1999) and political liberalism (1993) Rawls belongs to social contract tradition of ethical & political philosophy anticipated by. Plato/socrates & initiated in modern era by thomas hobbes. Justice is a set of principlesrequired for choosing the various social arrangements which determine the division of advantages and for underwriting an agreement on the proper distributive shares.
