Rawls' Two Principles

According to Rawls, the principles that would be chosen in the original position as settling what is just in a society are:

"First: each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive basic liberty compatible with a similar liberty for others.

Second: social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they are both (a) reasonably expected to be to everyone's advantage, and (b) attached to positions and offices open to all."


Richard Lee, rlee@uark.edu, last modified: 18 November 2010