Rawls's A Theory of Justice at 50

Paul Weithman is the Glynn Family Honors Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of Religion and the Obligations of Citizenship (Cambridge, 2002), Rawls, Political Liberalism and Reasonable Faith (Cambridge, 2016), and Why Political Liberalism? (2010).

• Part I. Rawls and History: 1. 'Taillight illumination: how Rawlsian concepts may improve understanding of Hobbes's political philosophy' S. A. Lloyd; 2. 'The theory Rawls, the 1844 Marx, and the market' Daniel Brudney; 3. 'Rawls, Lerner, and the tax-and-spend booby trap: what happened to monetary policy?' Aaron James; 4. 'Rawls's principles of justice as a transcendence of class warfare' Elizabeth Anderson; 5. 'The significance of injustice' Peter de Marneffe; Part II. Developments between A Theory of Justice and Political Liberalism: 6. 'On being a 'self-originating source of valid claims' Stephen Darwall; 7. ' Moral independence revisited: a note on the development of Rawls's thought from 1977–1980 and beyond' Samuel Scheffler; 8. 'The method of insulation: on the development of Rawls's thought after a theory of justice' Rainer Forst; 9. 'The stability or fragility of justice' Japa Pallikkathayil; Part III. Rawls, Ideal Theory and the Persistence of Injustice: 10. 'The circumstances of justice' Erin I. Kelly; 11. 'Why Rawls's ideal theory leaves the well-ordered society vulnerable to structural oppression' Henry S. Richardson; 12. 'Race, reparations, and justice as fairness' Tommie Shelby; 13. ' On the role of the original position in Rawls's theory: reassessing the 'idealization' and 'fact-sensitivity' critiques' Laura Valentini; Part IV. Pluralism, Democracy and the Future of Justice as Fairness: 14. 'Public reason at fifty' Kevin Vallier; 15. 'Reasonable political conceptions and the well-ordered liberal society' Samuel Freeman; 16. 'Religious pluralism and social unions' Paul Weithman; 17. 'One Person, at least one vote? Rawls on political equality…within limits' David Estlund; 18. 'Reflections on democracy's fragility' Joshua Cohen; 19. 'A society of self-respect' Leif Wenar; Bibliography; Index.

'In this volume some of the leading political philosophers working today demonstrate unequivocally that 50 years after the publication of A Theory of Justice, the Rawlsian framework remains a rich and productive source of insight. While some of the contributions shed light on that framework itself and its development, others use its resources to push into areas that Rawls himself did not address in depth. Whether tracing the development of the idea of public reason within and beyond Rawls's own work, comparing Rawls with important historical and contemporary figures, or assessing the ability of justice as fairness to address issues of racial injustice, the essays are of uniformly high quality.' Jon Mandle, SUNY Albany