Ideally citizens are to think of themselves as if they were legislators and ask themselves what statutes, supported by what reasons satisfying the criterion of reciprocity, they would think is most reasonable to enact. John Rawls More Quotes by John Rawls More Quotes From John Rawls Thus I assume that to each according to his threat advantage is not a conception of justice. John Rawls advantage assuming justice The fault of the utilitarian doctrine is that it mistakes impersonality for impartiality. John Rawls doctrine faults mistake Certainly it is wrong to be cruel to animals and the destruction of a whole species can be a great evil. The capacity for feelings of pleasure and pain and for the form of life of which animals are capable clearly impose duties of compassion and humanity in their case. John Rawls pain compassion animal The extreme nature of dominant-end views is often concealed by the vagueness and ambiguity of the end proposed. John Rawls vagueness ends views The perspective of eternity is not a perspective from a certain place beyond the world, nor the point of view of a transcendent being; rather it is a certain form of thought and feeling that rational persons can adopt within the world ... Purity of heart, if one could attain it, would be to see clearly and to act with grace and self-command from this point of view. John Rawls self views heart If you compare the United States with Europe, my view is that what happened in Europe is that the church became deeply distrusted by people, because it sided with the monarchs. It instituted the Inquisition and became part of the repressive state apparatus. That never happened here. We don't have that history. John Rawls views europe people A political conception covers the right to vote, the political virtues, and the good of political life, but it doesn't intend to cover anything else. John Rawls vote virtue political A just system must generate its own support. John Rawls support Political philosophy is realistically utopian when it extends what are ordinarily thought to be the limits of practicable political possibility and, in so doing, reconciles us to our political and social condition. Our hope for the future of our society rests on the belief that the social world allows a reasonably just Society of Peoples. John Rawls our-society political philosophy We may suppose that everyone has in himself the whole form of a moral conception. John Rawls moral form may The claims of existing social arrangements and of self interest have been duly allowed for. We cannot at the end count them a second time because we do not like the result. John Rawls ends social self The question is, we have a particular problem. How many religions are there in the United States? How are they going to get on together? One way, which has been the usual way historically, is to fight it out, as in France in the sixteenth century. That's a possibility. John Rawls france fighting together Ideal legislators do not vote their interests. John Rawls legislators vote interest At best the principles that economists have supposed the choices of rational individuals to satisfy can be presented as guidelines for us to consider when we make our decisions. John Rawls choices principles decision Now the good of political life is a great political good. It is not a secular good specified by a comprehensive doctrine like those of Kant or Mill. You could characterize this political good as the good of free and equal citizens recognizing the duty of civility to one another: the duty to give citizens public reasons for one's political actions. John Rawls doctrine political giving First of all, principles should be general. That is, it must be possible to formulate them without use of what would be intuitively recognized as proper names, or rigged definite descriptions. John Rawls principles would-be names How did Madison get separation through Virginia and later Congress? The Baptists, the Presbyterians, and the smaller sects hated Jefferson; to them he was a secularist of the worst kind. But Madison could get Jefferson's bill passed because the Baptists, the Presbyterians, and smaller sects who were excluded in New England and in the South got together for their own protection. John Rawls virginia england together What's important is that people give the kinds of reasons that can be understood and appraised apart from their particular comprehensive doctrines: for example, that they argue against physician-assisted suicide not just by speculating about God's wrath or the afterlife, but by talking about what they see as assisted suicide's potential injustices. John Rawls afterlife suicide talking Peace surely is a good reason, yes. But there are other reasons too. John Rawls reason People can make arguments from the Bible if they want to. But I want them to see that they should also give arguments that all reasonable citizens might agree to. John Rawls citizens giving people
