Books in the Columbia Classics in Philosophy series

This book continues and revises the ideas of justice as fairness that John Rawls presented in A Theory of Justice but changes its philosophical interpretation in a fundamental way. That previous work assumed what Rawls calls a "e;well-ordered society,"e; one that is stable and relatively homogenous in its basic moral beliefs and in which there is broad agreement about what constitutes the good life. Yet in modern democratic society a plurality of incompatible and irreconcilable doctrines-religious, philosophical, and moral-coexist within the framework of democratic institutions. Recognizing this as a permanent condition of democracy, Rawls asks how a stable and just society of free and equal citizens can live in concord when divided by reasonable but incompatible doctrines?This edition includes the essay "e;The Idea of Public Reason Revisited,"e; which outlines Rawls' plans to revise Political Liberalism, which were cut short by his death. "e;An extraordinary well-reasoned commentary on A Theory of Justice...a decisive turn towards political philosophy."e; -Times Literary Supplement