Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Abbreviations for Rawls’s texts
- Introduction
- A
- B
- C
- D
- E
- F
- G
- H
- I
- J
- K
- L
- M
- N
- O
- P
- R
- S
- 195 Sandel, Michael
- 196 Scanlon, T. M.
- 197 Self-interest
- 198 Self-respect
- 199 Sen, Amartya
- 200 Sense of justice
- 201 Sidgwick, Henry
- 202 Sin
- 203 Social choice theory
- 204 Social contract
- 205 Social minimum
- 206 Social union
- 207 Socialism
- 208 Society of peoples
- 209 Soper, Philip
- 210 Sovereignty
- 211 Stability
- 212 Statesman and duty of statesmanship
- 213 Strains of commitment
- 214 Supreme Court and judicial review
- T
- U
- W
- Bibliography
- Index
204 - Social contract
from S
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
- G
- H
- I
- J
- K
- L
- M
- N
- O
- P
- R
- S
- 195 Sandel, Michael
- 196 Scanlon, T. M.
- 197 Self-interest
- 198 Self-respect
- 199 Sen, Amartya
- 200 Sense of justice
- 201 Sidgwick, Henry
- 202 Sin
- 203 Social choice theory
- 204 Social contract
- 205 Social minimum
- 206 Social union
- 207 Socialism
- 208 Society of peoples
- 209 Soper, Philip
- 210 Sovereignty
- 211 Stability
- 212 Statesman and duty of statesmanship
- 213 Strains of commitment
- 214 Supreme Court and judicial review
- T
- U
- W
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
From early in his career, Rawls was attracted to the idea of the social contract as a way of developing a systematic alternative to utilitarianism – one that defended our intuitive conviction that there are limits to the aggregation of interests across persons, but that went beyond intuition by yielding a definite ranking of competing priorities. While the details of the argument from the original position have been much criticized, the general idea of an agreement about principles of institutional design reached under fair conditions can be seen as the key to Rawls’s attempted reconciliation of liberty and equality. On the one hand, if the social order must be acceptable to everyone, it must be acceptable to minority religious and philosophical points of view, arguing for freedom of thought, conscience, and association. On the other hand, if the social order must be acceptable to everyone, it must be acceptable to the worse off, arguing that socioeconomic inequalities should benefit those with less. The social contract can thus be seen as the linchpin for Rawls’s egalitarian liberalism.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Rawls Lexicon , pp. 781 - 784Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2014