Reconstruction of Political Liberalism in John Rawls's Thought Based on Two Concepts of Happiness and Freedom

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Abstract

As one of the most famous contemporary liberal philosophers and an outstanding thinker of political philosophy, John Rawls's thought have been more disputable and controversial compared to other contemporary philosophers. Usually Rawls's name has been blended with his theory of justice and adding justice to the liberal thought, thus other aspects of his thought have been neglected. This is while presents a new version of liberalism and he can be regarded as the re-constructor of liberalism. This article tries to present a reading of Rawlsian liberalism based on two concept of happiness and liberty and the features of his political liberalism. It should be mentioned that this issue will help in both better understanding and better criticizing liberal theories.

Keywords


·         Boucher, David and Kelly, Paul (1994), The social Contract from Hobbes to Rawls, Routledge, London.
·         Kant, Immanuel (1990), Political Writings, Hans Reiss, Translated by H. B. Nisbet, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, Second Enlarged Edition.
·         Kant, Immanuel, (1996) An Answer to the Question: What Is Enlightenment?, Translated by James Schmidt, in James Schmidt (edited), Eighteenth century answers & Twentieth century Questions, Berkeley: University of California Press.
·         Kekes, John (1997), Against Liberalism, Cornel University Press, London.
·         Kymlicka, Will, (1992) Contemporary Political Philosophy: An Introduction, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
·         Kymlicka, Will, (1998) Liberal Egalitarianism and Civic Republicanism: friends or enemies?, in Anita L. Allen, Milton C. Regan (edited).
·         Mulhall, Stephen, and swift, Adam (1996), Liberals and Communitarians, Oxford, Cambridge Mass.
·         Plant, Raymond, (1991) Modern Political Thought, London: Basil Black Well, Cambridge.
·         Pogge, Thomas (2007), John Rawls: his Life and Theory of Justice, Translated By Michelle Kosch, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
·         Putnam, Ruth Anna, Neither a Beast nor a God, Social Theory & Practice, 0037802x, summer 2000, vol. 26, Issue2.
·         Rawls, John (1971/1999), A Theory of Justice, Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA.
·         Rawls, John (1993), Political Liberalism, New York, Columbia University Press.
·         Rawls, John (2000), Lectures on the History of Moral Philosophy, Edited by Barbara Harman, Harvard University Press.
·         Rawls, John (1999), The Law of People; with the Idea of Public Reason Revisited, Cambridge, Harvard University Press.
·         Sandel, Michael J. (1996) Democracy's discontent, America in search of a public philosophy, Cambridge, mass: the bekknap press of Harvard university press.
·         Siegel, Andrew W. (1998), moral status and the status of morality in political liberalism, in Anita L Allen, Milton C Regan (edited).
·         Taylor, Charles (2000), Sources of the Self, The Making of the Modern Identity, Cambridge University Press.