[Revised entry by Samuel Freeman on October 24, 2023.
Changes to: Main text, Bibliography, difference-principle.html, further-topics.html]
The original position is a central feature of John Rawls’s social contract account of justice, “justice as fairness,” set forth in A Theory of Justice (TJ). The original position is designed to be a fair and impartial point of view that is to be adopted in our reasoning about fundamental principles of justice. In taking up this point of view, we are to imagine ourselves in the position of free and equal persons who jointly agree upon and commit themselves to principles of social and political justice for a…

Originally appeared on Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Read More