Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Abbreviations for Rawls’s texts
- Introduction
- A
- B
- C
- D
- E
- F
- 70 Facts, general (in OP argument and as part of justiication)
- 71 Fair equality of opportunity
- 72 Fairness, principle of
- 73 Faith
- 74 Family
- 75 Feminism
- 76 Formal justice
- 77 The four-stage sequence
- 78 Freedom
- 79 Freedom of speech
- 80 Freeman, Samuel
- 81 Fundamental ideas (in justice as fairness)
- G
- H
- I
- J
- K
- L
- M
- N
- O
- P
- R
- S
- T
- U
- W
- Bibliography
- Index
78 - Freedom
from F
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2015
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Abbreviations for Rawls’s texts
- Introduction
- A
- B
- C
- D
- E
- F
- 70 Facts, general (in OP argument and as part of justiication)
- 71 Fair equality of opportunity
- 72 Fairness, principle of
- 73 Faith
- 74 Family
- 75 Feminism
- 76 Formal justice
- 77 The four-stage sequence
- 78 Freedom
- 79 Freedom of speech
- 80 Freeman, Samuel
- 81 Fundamental ideas (in justice as fairness)
- G
- H
- I
- J
- K
- L
- M
- N
- O
- P
- R
- S
- T
- U
- W
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The concept of freedom (or liberty – he doesn’t distinguish the two) is central to Rawls’s theory of justice at a number of levels. On the first page of A Theory of Justice, anticipating the priority that he gives to his first principle of justice over his second, as well as his critique of utilitarianism, Rawls asserts that “justice denies that the loss of freedom for some is made right by a greater good shared by others” (TJ 3). At the start of Political Liberalism, he orients his project by noting the apparent conlict between the ideals of freedom and equality (PL 4), and later he claims that “the point” of developing justice as fairness is to try to resolve this “impasse in our recent political history” (PL 300). He also notes the dispute concerning the proper understanding of liberty itself by pointing to the conlict
between the tradition associated with Locke, which gives greater weight to what Constant called ‘the liberties of the moderns,’ freedom of thought and conscience, certain basic rights of the person and of property, and the rule of law, and the tradition associated with Rousseau, which gives greater weight to what Constant called ‘the liberties of the ancients,’ the equal political liberties and the values of public life. (PL 4–5; cf. JF 2)
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Rawls Lexicon , pp. 293 - 299Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2014