New introduction to John Rawls

Rawls Explained
From Fairness to Utopia

by Paul Voice

(Open Court, 2011)

176 pages



Description

This book introduces the reader to the political theories of the American philosopher John Rawls. Rawls Explained sets out Rawls’s complex arguments in a way that makes them accessible to first-time readers of his hugely influential work. This book is both clear in its exposition of Rawls’s ideas and is true to the complex purposes of his arguments. It also attends to the variety of objections that have been made to Rawls’s arguments since it is these objections that have shaped the progression of his work.

Contents [preview]

Introduction

Part I: A Theory of Justice

1. Two Introductory Ideas
2. The Analytic of Justice
3. The Practicum of Justice
4. The Theoretical Basis of Justice
5. Objections and Responses

Part II: Political Liberalism

1. The Good in Political Liberalism
2. The Justfication of the Principles Reconsidered
3. The Right and the Good Revisited
4. Objections and Responses

Part III: The Law of Peoples

1. Ideal Theory - An Analytic of International Justice
2. The Practicum of International Justice
3. Objections and Responses

Conclusion

Paul Voice teaches philosophy at Bennington College, Vermont. He is the author of "Morality and Agreement: A Defense of Moral Contractarianism" (Peter Lang, 2002).