{"title":"A Theory of Justice Fifty Years Later","authors":"Andrius Gališanka","doi":"10.1177/14748851211045914","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"John Rawls's A Theory of Justice has reshaped liberal political theory, but what fruitful arguments does it generate today, fifty years after its publication? To show Theory's productive contemporary lives, I outline its key concepts and commitments, focusing on Rawls’ goal to uncover a consensus among reasonable persons. I highlight arguments in global justice and animal rights in which Theory's concept of the basic structure was fruitfully employed. Moreover, I argue that Rawls envisioned consensus as agreement only on very broad terms. Perhaps more than he realized, he left it to citizens to deal with everyday questions about justice, in which identities and power are central. I suggest that to extend Theory to such questions, theorists can combine its central values, such as those of self-respect and autonomy, with independent conceptions of power, so long as these treat arguments as irreducible to power relations.","PeriodicalId":46183,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Political Theory","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3000,"publicationDate":"2021-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"European Journal of Political Theory","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14748851211045914","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"POLITICAL SCIENCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
John Rawls's A Theory of Justice has reshaped liberal political theory, but what fruitful arguments does it generate today, fifty years after its publication? To show Theory's productive contemporary lives, I outline its key concepts and commitments, focusing on Rawls’ goal to uncover a consensus among reasonable persons. I highlight arguments in global justice and animal rights in which Theory's concept of the basic structure was fruitfully employed. Moreover, I argue that Rawls envisioned consensus as agreement only on very broad terms. Perhaps more than he realized, he left it to citizens to deal with everyday questions about justice, in which identities and power are central. I suggest that to extend Theory to such questions, theorists can combine its central values, such as those of self-respect and autonomy, with independent conceptions of power, so long as these treat arguments as irreducible to power relations.
期刊介绍:
The European Journal of Political Theory provides a high profile research forum. Broad in scope and international in readership, the Journal is named after its geographical location, but is committed to advancing original debates in political theory in the widest possible sense--geographical, historical, and ideological. The Journal publishes contributions in analytic political philosophy, political theory, comparative political thought, and the history of ideas of any tradition. Work that challenges orthodoxies and disrupts entrenched debates is particularly encouraged. All research articles are subject to triple-blind peer-review by internationally renowned scholars in order to ensure the highest standards of quality and impartiality.