There are limits to the way individuals can be legitimately sacrificed for the benefit of others. To treat people as equals we must protect them in their possession of certain rights and liberties. Political theory was caught between two extremes: utilitarianism on the one side, and an incoherent jumble of ideas and principles on the other. Second option intuitionism which is a little more than a series of anecdotes based on particular intuitions about particular issues. Rawls sets himself to develop a systematic political theory that structures our different intuitions. We cannot take for granted that there must be a complete derivation of our judgements of social justice from recognizable ethical principles. The only way therefore to dispute intuitionism is to set forth the recognisably ethical criteria that account for the weights which, in our considered judgments we think appropriate to give to the plurality of principles.