One important notion is that of consensus without bias that is, grounding political judgments on deliberation of an artificially neutral kind. The method by which Rawls develops his theory of politics relies on two normative judgments in the context of political discussion and the building of consensus which can reasonably be called ‘liberal’. The Role of Political Consensus A photograph of Harvard, where Rawls taught for over thirty years, via Wikimedia Commons.īut Rawls’s theory is liberal in a deeper sense. We can also expect, notwithstanding the rights and liberties enshrined in actually existing constitutions, that these are to be negative rights – freedom from various kind of interference, largely the interference of the state (note that this isn’t true of all ‘negative liberties’ the right to privacy implies a right to be protected from interference by anyone).Ģ. Rawls conceives of these are enshrined within a constitution, and so the kind of freedoms he is envisaging likely have precedent in actually existing constitutional rights and liberties freedom of expression, privacy, integrity or autonomy over one’s own body in certain circumstances. We might begin by asking what makes a theory of justice ‘liberal’, and distinguishing the various guises that ‘ liberalism’ takes in Rawls’ theory, as both an ideological lodestar and a constraint.įirst, Rawls’ theory is a liberal one in the sense that certain basic freedoms are the first principle of justice. Rawls’ theory of justice is often described as the definitive, modern ‘liberal’ theory of justice. Rawls’s First Principle of Justice A photograph of John Rawls in 1971, probably authored by his son, via Wikimedia Commons.

A Theory of Justice by John Rawls