John Rawls Quotes
Each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override. For this reason justice denies that the loss of freedom for some is made right by a greater good shared by others. It does not allow that the sacrifices imposed on a few are outweighed by the larger sum of advantages enjoyed by many. Therefore in a just society the liberties of equal citizenship are taken as settled; the rights secured by justice are not subject to political bargaining or to the calculus of social interests.
Rights belong to the individual according to Rawls, not to the community of subgroups. Justice demands that the rights of the individual may not be sacrificed for the supposed benefit of the community or entire society. Not all agree with this, but it tends to differentiate Western cultural values from most others in the world where group, community or national benefit
John Rawls, 1921–2002, Political Philosopher, A Theory of Justice, 1971, trumps the rights of the individual.]
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
He was a master of political games, deceit and showmanship himself. Despite his and other politician’s rhetoric, Malaysia has been handicapped by extensive corruption, poor education, and a religiously (Islam) dominated civilian government and a view of rights that makes the individual subservient to the society. See {631572},
Jefferson had deliberately modified John Locke’s phrase “life, liberty and property.
Jefferson and some of the other Founding Fathers saw the American experiment as having implications for the whole world. To Jefferson, the Declaration of Independence was not just for Americans but ideally for all mankind.
This verse is inscribed on the Liberty Bell and the Statue of Liberty base.
Hayward claimed that Wilson was the first American President who ever criticized the American Constitution. Many do not agree as Madison and Jefferson in part, along with most other Americans, found the Constitution so wanting that it was ratified only on condition of the passage of the Bill of Rights. Jackson, was distressed by the limitations on the President and many others had their objections, but Wilson, before he became a politician was a prominent academic political scientist and wrote voluminously and had an intellectual following so his criticism was not considered so “political” as others.
The preamble to this declaration of womens’ rights cleverly beginy s with the words of the Declaration of Independence with the single change that “all men” is replaced with “all men and women.” The message was clear. If the founders had a moral right and duty to revolt for these objectives women would be justified and duty bound to make similar efforts. That message terrified many men of the era.
A classic potential conflict is between attaining liberty AND justice. In quest for one, the other can suffer. Many reforms and revolutions do not get this balance right.
- Born: February 21, 1921
- Died: November 24, 2002
- Nationality: American
- Profession: Educator
John Bordley Rawls was an American moral and political philosopher in the liberal tradition. Rawls received both the Schock Prize for Logic and Philosophy and the National Humanities Medal in 1999, the latter presented by President Bill Clinton, in recognition of how Rawls' work "helped a whole generation of learned Americans revive their faith in democracy itself."
