John Rawls offered a conception of justice as an alternative to the doctrine of utilitarianism in his 1971 book A Theory of Justice. John Rawls states two principles of justice which he says are provisional. The first of these states that each person is to have an equal right to the most basic liberty compatible with a similar liberty for others. The second states that social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they are both a) reasonably expected to be to the advantage of everyone and b) attached to positions and offices open to all. Rawls says that these principles refer to the basic structure of society and that they are to govern the rights and duties and to regulate the distribution of social and economic advantages. He also says that an original position of equality is the correct standpoint from which to assess different theories of justice, and this position is the source of the two principles noted above. Rawls's views on justice are embodied in his conception of political life and the formation of government. For Rawls, the act of entering into a social contract does not entail setting up a particular form of government as it does for Locke and Rousseau. Rather, he sees the nature of the agreement as being on the questions of justice, with the contract concerning an agreement on how issues between members of society are to be decided. The principles agreed to are to regulate all further agreements and specify the types of cooperation that can be entered into and the forms of government that may be established, all based on the concept of justice as fairness.
The question then becomes how men decide to make this decision and to accept the concept of justice as fairness. The act of making this decision must be entered into in a state of equality, and this equality derives from ignorance about each individual's place in society. Rawls says that the state of nature is a purely hypothetical state of ...