Rawls, John (1921-2002), was an American philosopher, writer, and educator. He was one of the most important political theorists of the 1900’s. Rawls contributed greatly to a new understanding of the philosophy of political liberalism, which emphasizes freedom, equality, and opportunity. His most famous work, A Theory of Justice (1971), strongly influenced the fields of ethics, law, and political science.
Rawls believed that a person’s liberty should be limited only when it prevents others from having the same degree of liberty. He challenged the ideas of utilitarianism, which holds that society should seek the greatest good for the greatest number of people. Rawls argued that utilitarian views often overlook the rights and interests of disadvantaged people. In A Theory of Justice, Rawls wrote that economic and social inequalities should be tolerated only when society promotes the interests of the disadvantaged. Rawls’s other well-known works include Political Liberalism (1993), The Law of Peoples (1999), and Justice as Fairness: A Restatement (2001).
John Bordley Rawls was born on Feb. 21, 1921, in Baltimore. He graduated from Princeton University in 1943. Rawls served in the United States Army from 1943 to 1945, during World War II. He received a Ph.D. in philosophy from Princeton in 1950. During his early career, Rawls taught at Princeton, Cornell University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1962, he joined the faculty of Harvard University, where he taught for more than 30 years. Rawls died in Lexington, Massachusetts, on Nov. 24, 2002.
See also Liberalism ; Utilitarianism .
