Ismailov, N. O. John Rawls’ Theory of Justice

Abstract: The author of the present article analyzes the main ideas shared by John Rawls in his book ‘A Theory of Justice’. John Rawl was one of the most famous modern philosophers who studied justice. The author of the article also studies the principles of distributive justice. The author also provides a brief analysis of the main ideas and conclusions made by Rawls in his later theory of political liberalism. The author views Rawls’ views as reflecting the reality of the modern society and tries to find particular points in Rawls’ theory that could have been used for the implementation of the principles of justice in the modern society. The author studies the problem of justice from the point of view of the unity of all spheres of social life, causal and functional relations and interconnection of needs, interests and values. Rawls’ theory is viewed as the ‘contract theory’. Theoretical ground of Rawls’ theory of justice is the deontological liberalism. Rawls’ theory has certain advantages, for example, his recommended measures to achieve the social consent, and disadvantages: the author does not see any interdependence between the must and the benefit, needs, interests and values or relation between the main spheres of social life and economic and ideological relations in Rawls’ studies.

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