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The good of political life is the good of free and equal citizens recognizing the duty of civility to one another and supporting the institutions of a constitutional regime.

John Rawls

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John Rawls
Age: 81 †
Born: 1921
Born: February 21
Died: 2002
Died: November 24
Pedagogue
Philosopher
Political Scientist
University Teacher
Baltimore
Maryland
Rawls
John Bordley Rawls
Free
Constitutional
Political
Supporting
Regimes
Another
Recognizing
Good
Institutions
Life
Citizens
Equal
Civility
Duty
Regime

More quotes by John Rawls

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Now the good of political life is a great political good. It is not a secular good specified by a comprehensive doctrine like those of Kant or Mill. You could characterize this political good as the good of free and equal citizens recognizing the duty of civility to one another: the duty to give citizens public reasons for one's political actions.
John Rawls
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Justice as fairness provides what we want.
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An injustice is tolerable only when it is necessary to avoid an even greater injustice.
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At best the principles that economists have supposed the choices of rational individuals to satisfy can be presented as guidelines for us to consider when we make our decisions.
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The fault of the utilitarian doctrine is that it mistakes impersonality for impartiality.
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Liberal constitutional democracy is supposed to ensure that each citizen is free and equal and protected by basic rights and liberties.
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The natural distribution is neither just nor unjust nor is it unjust that persons are born into society at some particular position. These are simply natural facts. What is just and unjust is the way that institutions deal with these facts.
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The fairest rules are those to which everyone would agree if they did not know how much power they would have.
John Rawls
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There are infinitely many variations of the initial situation and therefore no doubt indefinitely many theorems of moral geometry.
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No one deserves his greater natural capacity nor merits a more favorable starting place in society.
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The idea of public reason isn't about the right answers to all these questions, but about the kinds of reasons that they ought to be answered by.
John Rawls
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When the basic structure of society is publicly known to satisfy its principles for an extended period of time, those subject to these arrangements tend to develop a desire to act in accordance with these principles and to do their part in institutions which exemplify them
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Religious faith is an important aspect of American culture and a fact of American political life.
John Rawls
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The extreme nature of dominant-end views is often concealed by the vagueness and ambiguity of the end proposed.
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An intolerant sect has no right to complain when it is denied an equal liberty... A person's right to complain is limited to principles he acknowledges himself.
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Public reason arguments can be good or bad just like other arguments.
John Rawls
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A scheme is unjust when the higher expectations, one or more of them, are excessive. If these expectations were decreased, the situation of the less favored would be improved.
John Rawls
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Citizens can have their own grounding in their comprehensive doctrines, whatever they happen to be.
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There are various ways you might define the common good, but that would be one way you could do it.
John Rawls
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You hear that liberalism lacks an idea of the common good, but I think that's a mistake.
John Rawls