John Rawls, a professor of Harvard University in the United States, has attracted widespread attention in Western countries since its publication in 1971. It is regarded as one of the most important works in Western political philosophy, law and moral philosophy after World War II. one.After the book was published, it received heated discussions and was listed as one of the must-read books for many university courses.The various debates or research articles triggered by it are even more numerous and dizzying.Robert Dahl, a famous American political scientist, said: Rawls's work was immediately recognized in English-speaking countries as a fundamental contribution to political philosophy.The key reason why this book can strike water like a rock is that it breaks the desolate situation in which all horses and horses are silent in Western political philosophy.The decline of Western political philosophy is well known. Amy Burns, a scholar specializing in political theory, said: There is not much new under the sun of political theory.This fully demonstrates the plight of the theoretical system constructed by the traditional Western speculative methods.Rawls's book is refreshing with its uniqueness and speculation.

John Rawls was born in Baltimore, Maryland, USA in 1921. He graduated from Princeton University in 1943 and received a Ph.D. -1959), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1960-1962) and Harvard University (1962-).As a scholar born out of a university atmosphere, his whole system of thought is full of pedantry.Some critics compare Rawls with Plato, Aquinas and Hegel, but Rawls is different from them.Those masters of thought have written a lot and cover a wide range of subjects, but Rawls has only one major work.A book, with more than 400,000 words, is actually a collection of essays.Rawls said in the preface: "In proposing a theory of justice, I tried to gather the ideas in the papers I have written in the past ten years and make them into a coherent point of view." Rawls In 1951, he first published his first work "Outline of a Decision Procedure Applicable to Ethics".The establishment of the basic concept is "justice is fair" (1958).Later, he successively wrote "Constitutional Liberty and the Concept of Justice" (1963), "A Sense of Justice" (1963), "Nonviolent Resistance" (1966), and "Distributive Justice" (1967). 1969-1978.Rawls completed the organization and processing of the book at Stanford's Center for Advanced Study.In the past 20 years, Rawls has encountered criticism and challenges from all sides, which prompted him to write one paper after another to improve his own arguments and refute the opponent's views.Such a process also makes a book appear very obscure, with clusters of concepts.In order to explain a problem, Rawls often has to dig out arguments again and again.But his foreword shows the thread of his thought.

, as the name suggests, is about justice.The concept of justice has a pivotal position in the history of human thought and social development, just as Rawls said: justice is the first virtue of a social system, just as truth is the first virtue of an ideological system (Section 1).Rawls regards the regulation of the concept of justice as the cornerstone of social development.The book is divided into 3 parts and 9 chapters. The first part "Theory" discusses the definition of justice, the historical development of justice, the role of justice, the connotation of justice, and the original state; the second part "System" analyzes how to use the first The principle of justice determined by the compilation is used to analyze the social political system, economic system and civic life, which involves the specific aspects of people's social life. Here it reflects in detail the social and practical significance of Rawls's highly speculative concept of justice, as well as his role as The strategy proposed by a scholar to solve the contradictions, conflicts, and civil wars in Western society; the third part "Purpose" discusses topics in the field of ethics and morality, involving a series of topics such as goodness, self-esteem, virtue, sense of justice, moral feelings, and self-discipline.This part is different from the previous two parts, and both the exposition and analysis seem to be a little bit estranged from his principles of justice.In fact, Rawls thinks this part is very important. If the arguments in the last part are not considered, the theory of justice will also be misunderstood (preface).Indeed, if a principle of justice is to prevail in a society, the key is whether people can accept and believe it, which involves issues of moral psychology and the formation of a sense of justice.If everyone does not have a just psychological atmosphere and cultural environment, a principle of justice cannot be accepted. This is what Rawls said "justice is the relative stability of fairness".Although the content of this part is not as novel as the previous two parts, it is indispensable in the whole theory.

Justice has always been a value concept with different opinions and opinions.In the earliest written records, justice refers to fairness and rightness in a general sense. Justice includes all virtues and complete moral behavior patterns. Later, justice was gradually distinguished from equality and charity.However, the concept of justice is still a broad concept, and different thinkers have made different definitions. For example, Plato proposed that justice means that people at all levels in society perform their duties, keep their order, and get their own place.Aristotle believes that equality is justice, but justice is divided into "equality in quantity" and "equality in ratio". The latter refers to distributive justice, that is, among unequal individuals, according to the unequal value of each person, the things that are commensurate with them are distributed in proportion.Hume believed that the public good was the only source of justice.Mill asserts that justice is some moral rule about basic human welfare, and so on.In the contemporary world, justice is still at the center of people's debates, especially in the era of rapid social development, prominent contradictions and major social changes.Rawls is keen to intervene in the debate on justice, not out of purely academic preference, but responding to the call of society.The reason why the debate on justice has attracted attention is not because of people's subjective feelings, but because there are a lot of injustices in modern society. In Western societies with highly developed science and technology, injustices have not been solved by economic prosperity. , On the contrary, it has become more and more prominent and has become a source of endless social conflicts.It is in this atmosphere that Rawls devotes himself to the study of justice, and his intention is obvious.If it was just a purely academic product, it would never have caused such a big stir.

Rawls is clear about this. He stated clearly that the subject of justice is the basic structure of society, or more precisely, the main social institutions that distribute basic rights and duties and determine the distribution of benefits arising from social cooperation. manner (section 2).Rawls divides the existing theories of justice that dominate Western society into two categories: (1) The utilitarian concept of justice.Rawls outlines it as: If the arrangement of the main institutions of a society obtains the maximum net balance of the total satisfaction of all members of the society, then this society is an orderly society and thus a just society (Section 5).The basic point of view of utilitarianism is to seek the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.The idea of ​​utilitarian thinking is: everyone will measure his own losses according to his own gains when realizing his own interests, the happiness of society is composed of personal happiness, and the principle of individuals is to maximize their own welfare and satisfy their own desires , the principle of society is to maximize the welfare of the group and maximize the realization of the total desire system composed of the desires of all members; (2) Intuitionistic concept of justice (Section 7).Intuitionism does not think about problems from the gains and losses of individuals or groups, but reaches some basic principles through self-reflection, and these basic principles are supreme.It can be used to measure various conflicting principles of justice.Intuitionism does not include other methods of measurement. People rely on intuition, and rely on what seems to people to be the closest to being true.Intuitionism emphasizes that the complexity of moral facts makes people often unable to explain people's judgments, and intuitionism holds that "any higher presumptive standard for determining the proper emphasis of different principles of justice, does not exist." These two kinds of justice There is an obvious difference between conception: one is based on utility, and the other is based on intuition.

Rawls disagrees with both.But he was especially opposed to utilitarianism.He believes that in many theories of modern moral philosophy, some form of utilitarianism has always prevailed.Moral philosophy is one of the foundations of a society's ideal life model. It is impossible to change the various systems of a society without changing the dominant moral philosophy of a society.Starting from this point, Rawls took the utilitarian view of justice as the object of criticism.In fact, the utilitarian concepts propagated by Hume, Bentham, Adam Smith and Mill have always been dominant in Western society. These concepts and principles have established the Western political system, social system and economic system. Foundation.However, these systems have not overcome the profound contradictions that exist in society.Rawls is a reformist. He believes that the key to improving the Western social system is to change the dominant utilitarian concept of justice.This is the goal that Rawls set for himself.

Rawls is convinced that there are several drawbacks in the utilitarian view of justice: (1) It does not reveal the principled distinction between the demands of freedom and rights and the growth desire of social welfare, it does not affirm the priority principle of justice, and justice denies that some It is justified for people to enjoy greater benefits while depriving others of their freedom, and political transactions and social interests cannot be grounds for obstructing fundamental rights; (2) It is not advisable to assume that the regulating principle of a human association is only the expansion of the principle of individual choice , it does not regard the principle of unanimous approval as the basis of justice, and its principle content cannot become the macro standard for regulating all people; (3) it is a theory of teleology, which explains the just right by maximizing the increase of good theory, while the true principles of justice are pre-established, and justice cannot be judged from the results; (4) it believes that the satisfaction of any desire has value in itself, without distinguishing the nature of these desires, regardless of the source of these satisfactions and their nature, and what effect they have on happiness, such as what people think of when they discriminate against one another or at the expense of another's liberty in order to enhance their own dignity (Section 6).Here it is directly expressed as a criticism of utilitarianism, and also indirectly criticizes various injustices in Western society, such as unequal distribution, supremacy of desire, racial discrimination, poverty and so on.

Since the utilitarian concept of justice is inadequate and has many flaws, what kind of concept of justice should be established?Rawls’ point of view is very clear: “What I have to do is to summarize the traditional social contract theory represented by Locke, Rousseau and Kant, and raise it to a higher level.” (Preface) Therefore, Rawls is based on the traditional contract theory.Contract theory has a long history in the West, and some modern thoughts are all contract theorists, such as Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau and others.Their contract thought once played a shocking role in western history, but then time passed and the contract theory gave way to utilitarianism.It can be said that the contract theory represents a kind of political radicalism, while utilitarianism means a kind of economic benefits.After the establishment of the capitalist system, it is not surprising that utilitarianism is replaced by contract theory.Rawls raised the banner of contract theory again, which is ingenious in itself.

Rawls's theory of justice, in a word, can be called the theory of justice as fairness.To derive the principles of this theory, we first need to explain a premise, which is how the social contract came into being.A rational or logical assumption must be made here.Rawls called this hypothetical environment the "Original Position", which is equivalent to the position of the natural state in the ideological systems of Rousseau, Locke and others. The original state is purely a rational assumption, which cannot be demonstrated in practical history.Rawls knows this when he says that the original state is a purely hypothetical state (section 20).In determining the conception of justice, Rawls often relies partly on intuitionism, which he says is justice as fairness, would treat the principles of justice as original contracts in an appropriately defined original situation goals (section 20).The design intention of the original state is to exclude various historical and realistic factors, give a state of purely logical thinking, and make people generate the principle of justice.In the original state, all parties are moral subjects and are treated equally, and the results of their choices are not determined by random accidents, nor by the relative balance of social forces.But the original state alone is not enough to achieve the first principles of justice, other conditions must be set.

In order to set the original state, Rawls further proposed several core concepts: (1) The environment of justice.Human cooperation is possible and necessary in an environment in which objective conditions include a defined geographic area, similar physical and mental states, moderate deprivation, and subjective conditions in which all parties have broadly similar needs and interests, each party has its own life plan, and there are differences in philosophy, religious beliefs, political and social theories, so that people have both cooperation and conflict, so some principles are needed to guide people in deciding the division of interests (p. 22); (2) Formal limitations of legitimate ideas.People in the original position also had to accept certain constraints so that they could identify and choose principles effectively, the constraints being that principles should be general in nature and not specific, that first principles must be able to serve as a well-ordered the common blueprint of a society; the principles should work in application for every moral person, the conditions of the constraints should be made public and known to everyone, and an order should be given to the conflicting demands, and finally from The principles derived from the original position should be decisive and there is no higher standard above them (Section 23).Here is the nature of the principles of justice; (3) The veil of ignorance.This concept is a bolder assumption in order to be able to apply the concept of purely procedural justice.The original state is a kind of assumption, which requires people to get rid of all kinds of feelings and knowledge at the moment, and draw a big curtain in front of the real society, so that people can think about the principles of justice purely from scratch.The veil of ignorance assumes that the parties are ignorant of his place in society, of his class origin, of his natural aptitudes, of his natural abilities, of his sanity, of his strength, and that no one knows his conceptions of the good, his rational life plans, and his psychological characteristics. Nor do the parties know the economic or political state of the society.Because the social position, condition, or personal temperament possessed by each person affects a person's judgment of the principles of justice, they must all be separated by a veil of ignorance, so that the original position can be established (Section 24) (4) Reasoning rationality.There is another crucial condition for the success of the original position method, which is that the person in the original position must be assumed to be rational.The so-called rationality means that when people choose principles, they try to advance their own interests as much as possible. Their choices tend to be connected back and forth. They also have the ability to establish a sense of justice. They strive to seek an absolute score as high as possible, regardless of the other party. What are the gains and losses (v. 25).Of course, such a person is also a theoretically assumed person, not a person in real life.People in real life have emotions and desires, restricted by society and various background factors, it is impossible to act as Rawls hypothesized in theory.The above four conditions determine the basic attributes of the original state, from which the principle of justice can be deduced.

before arriving at the principles of justice.There is also the question of how people arrive at the principles of justice.Rawls first establishes a premise: all parties in the original state are equal, and in the process of selection, all people have the same rights as moral subjects; they have their own concepts of goodness and sense of justice people, they are equal to each other.It is under these conditions that the principles of justice are determined (section 4).According to the original situation and various conditions, Rawls deduced the general expression of the principle of justice: All social values—liberty and opportunity, income and wealth, and the basis of self-esteem—should be distributed equally, unless any unequal distribution of value is to everyone's advantage (Strategy Section 11). This general concept of justice can be decomposed into two levels, which are the two most famous principles of justice of Rawls: First, everyone has an equal right to the broadest range of fundamental liberties that can coexist with similar liberties of others. Second, social and economic inequality should be arranged so that it is not only (1) reasonably expected to be in everyone's interest; but (2) is linked to positions and offices open to all ( Section 11). These two principles of justice are matched with Rawls' basic structure of society. The first principle is used to determine and guarantee the equal freedom of citizens, and the second principle is used to define and establish social and economic inequality.The first principle includes principles such as the basic liberties of citizens, which are no different from traditional Western values.The most controversial is the second principle, which roughly applies to the distribution of income and wealth, because the distribution of wealth and income in society is often unequal, but this unequal distribution should benefit everyone, One then makes the position of power open to all to practice the second principle.The reason why the second principle is controversial is that under the condition of private ownership, the distribution of wealth and income is absolutely unequal, so how can the principle of equality be realized?In essence, Rawls' focus is here, and so is his theoretical starting point of reformism. After identifying the two principles of justice, Rawls implements them into the basic structure of society.Rawls interprets society as a mutually beneficial cooperative enterprise whose basic structure is a public system of rules that prescribes a design of activities that enables people to act together to produce a greater quantity of benefits.And assign certain recognized rights to each in proportion to his due share of the proceeds (Section 14).How to make the principle of justice evolve into a specific system, Rawls proposed "the order of four stages" (section 31), the first stage people accept the choice of two principles of justice; the second stage holds a constitutional convention to determine the political Structural justice and choose a constitution, set up the system, this stage is mainly to determine equal citizenship and various liberties; the third stage is the legislative stage, in this stage the second principle of justice plays a major role; the fourth stage It is the stage of specific application of norms. Judges and administrative officials apply the formulated norms to specific affairs, and citizens generally follow the norms.In this part, Rawls also discusses in depth the concept of liberty, equality and liberty of conscience, tolerance and the common good, political justice and the constitution, the principle of participation, the rule of law, the stipulation of the priority of liberty, etc., and clearly shows his ideas ideal political and social system.After this argument, he reformulates the first principle: First Principle: Everyone shall have an equal right to the broadest, comprehensive and equal fundamental liberties consistent with a similar liberty enjoyed by all. Rule of Priority: The principles of justice should be arranged in lexical order, so that liberty can be limited only for the sake of liberty itself.There are two cases here: (1) less extensive liberties should strengthen the general system of liberties enjoyed by all, and (2) less equal liberties must be those citizens who enjoy less liberties. accepted (section 39). Rawls uses this abstract standard to judge modern Western democratic systems, and he takes a critical attitude.He stated that a major shortcoming of constitutional government is that it does not ensure a fair value for political liberties, a phenomenon to which no corrective measures have been taken, and that disparities in the distribution of property and wealth are far beyond what can coexist with political liberties, But tolerated by the law, this defect is that the political process of democracy is at best a controlled competition, the effects of injustice in the political system are much more serious than the defects of the market, political power accumulates, becomes unequal, benefits people use the coercive tools of the state and the laws of the state to secure their advantage.Inequalities in the economic and social system quickly undermine any political equality, universal suffrage is insufficient to counteract this inequality, and as long as political parties and elections are financed by private donations, the political arena is subject to the control of dominant forces (p. 36).Rawls pointed out the basic shortcomings of Western democratic politics, but he did not make a deeper analysis. This reformist tendency of the value is expressed more clearly when discussing the second principle. The first principle is identified as taking precedence over the second. According to Rawls, the two principles of justice are arranged in a "lexical order," that is, only when the first principle is satisfied can the second be satisfied. Two principles (section 8).In fact, Rawls did not make any creative argument because the first principle has already been publicized. He spent a lot of effort to demonstrate the second principle.When discussing the second principle, he put forward several arguments: (1) Anti-efficiency principle.In terms of distribution, the principle of efficiency does not include the principle of justice. Therefore, the distribution of all products for one person or other unequal distribution methods may also be efficient. Therefore, the principle of efficiency alone cannot be just. Utility is also the distribution method of justice, which transcends the simple concept of utility (Section 12); (2) the principle of difference.The difference principle will overcome the uncertainty of the utility principle by picking out a special status to judge the inequality in the basic structure of society.If entrepreneurs have better prospects than unskilled workers, assuming they are in the initial position, how can the existence of differences be justified?It must then be that the differences favor the less well off.Any difference that exists must be able to benefit the least advantaged, the least favored; this principle has been hotly debated because its implementation would have meant a radical overhaul of Western institutions, Some people even call it "socialist" transformation; (3) chain relationship.The assumption here is that if a benefit raises the expectations of those at the bottom, it also raises the expectations of people at all other levels, and that when the most disadvantaged benefit, so do those in the middle.If the principles of justice are realized, this chain relationship will be realized.After these three arguments, Rawls expresses the second principle specifically as: Social and economic inequality should be arranged so that it is (1) in the best interest of the most disadvantaged and (2) consistent with the Status and office are linked (v. 13). The difference principle contains a certain kind of egalitarianism, and it also reflects some tendencies of liberalism, the most basic being "the tendency towards equality" (Section 17).The principle of difference means: (1) the principle of compensation.That is, the inequality of birth and talent should be compensated. The difference principle is not equal to the principle of compensation, but it tries to achieve the purpose of the principle of compensation; (2) The concept of reciprocity.The principle of difference is the principle of pursuing mutual benefit; (3) the principle of fraternity.In Western society, fraternity plays a secondary role compared with liberty and equality.The difference principle expresses a kind of civic friendship and social solidarity.These are some idealistic principles, and Rawls believes that Western society has not realized these principles, or has not developed along this direction. In order to point out the direction of social improvement in the West, Rawls focused on the fifth chapter to discuss the social and economic system.He first determined the "background system of distributive justice", which includes: (1) the distribution department.Responsible for keeping the price system truly competitive; (2) Stabilizing the sector.Responsible for realizing reasonable and full employment; (3) Allocating departments.Responsible for maintaining the minimum social security; (4) distribution department.Responsible for maintaining, through taxation and necessary adjustments to property rights, an approximate justice of the distribution share (Section 43).Society realizes the principles of justice by regulating the activities of these four sectors. After a comprehensive inspection of the political and economic system, Rawls made a complete statement of the two principles of justice (section 46): The first principle of justice: that each person shall have an equal right to the broadest, equal total system of fundamental liberties consistent with a similar system of liberties enjoyed by all. The Second Principle of Justice: Social and economic inequalities should be arranged in such a way that they are (1) in the best interest of the least advantaged, consistent with the just saving principle, and (2) with Officials and positions open to all are linked. First priority rule (priority of liberty): the principles of justice should be arranged in lexical order, so that liberty can be limited only for the sake of liberty itself.There are two situations here. (1) Less extensive liberties should strengthen the overall system of liberties enjoyed by everyone; (2) Less equal liberties must be acceptable to those with lesser liberties. Second precedence rule (justice takes precedence over efficiency and welfare): the second principle of justice takes precedence in lexical order over the principles of efficiency and maximizing aggregate benefits; and fair opportunity takes precedence over the difference principle.There are two situations here: (1) inequality of opportunity must expand the opportunities of those who have fewer opportunities; (2) excessive saving rates in aggregate reduce the burden on those who suffer from it. General concept: (see above). So far, Rawls' theory of justice has a general outline.As mentioned earlier, Rawls's entire theory of justice is reformist, that is, he wants to make some kind of amendment to the capitalist system in order to ease and coordinate the increasingly violent social conflicts.He stated many times in that the two principles of justice stipulated an ideal basic structure or outline of society, and the reform process should develop in this direction (Section 41).However, Rawls did not directly discuss the practical issues, but placed the principle of justice and its unfolding part under hypothetical conditions, and refined it to a highly speculative level.In fact, the more abstract the theory, the greater its connotation.The principle of justice, the principle of prioritizing liberty, the critique of utilitarianism, the principle of difference, the concept of liberty, the share of distribution, the issue of intergenerational justice, the principle of natural duty, nonviolent resistance, the foundation of equality, etc. Intricate contradictions and conflicts are closely related.Rawls himself did not spend too much ink to describe these scenes in the book, but turned all reality into rational concepts, which brought difficulties for people to better understand his theory. Doctrine, need to review the history of the United States in the past 30 years. Rawls's "Justice is Fairness" was published in 1958 and the book was completed in 1971.These years have been the era of changes in American society.The contradictions and conflicts inherent in capitalist society come one after another, one after another.Economic crisis, inflation, racial discrimination, civil rights movement, women's rights movement, poverty, boycott of the Vietnam War, student rebellion... happened one after another.This will undoubtedly cause people to reflect on social justice issues.Living in such an era, Rawls seriously pondered and observed these phenomena, and pinned his hope of getting out of the predicament on the clarification of the concept of justice.Naturally, this was an overly pedantic idea, but he made a considerable effort.It must be pointed out that Rawls is only a reformist, and his purpose is to improve within the existing scope of capitalism, not to change it. Rawls' main purpose is to promote social change by replacing the utilitarian conception of justice with that of justice as fairness.He focused on two major issues, civil rights and poverty.These two problems have not been resolved in American society for a long time, which is determined by the basic structure of capitalist society.The concepts he put forward, such as giving priority to the right to freedom, considering the interests of the least beneficiary, and equal liberty, all seek solutions to these problems.Just as Rawls said, there are still powerful groups that do their own thing in political life, there is still a huge distribution gap in economic life, and homeless people wandering in street stations still pose the biggest challenge to the system , the social status of black people is still worrying...the existence of these problems also constitutes the social conditions for a book to become popular.As long as these problems exist, the discussion on solving them will not end. Rawls belittles the utilitarian concept of justice and advocates the theory of justice as fairness, and has the following background; after the 1960s, a debate broke out in the United States and Western society-the debate between neoconservatism and liberalism.The ideas of equality and liberty are seen in modern society as two not so compatible values.Neo-conservatives insist that freedom is the core value of Western society, and over-emphasizing equality will hinder the realization of freedom. Liberals over-emphasize equality, which not only causes various crises to society, but also violates human freedom.Liberals, on the other hand, believe that only by emphasizing equality can people's freedom be guaranteed.Otherwise, the unequal distribution of political and economic resources will inevitably violate the freedom of some people.The debate has been protracted and represents different forces in society.It can be seen that Rawls tried to coordinate both equality and freedom.His first principle highlights liberty, and his second highlights equality.However, his general tendency is to emphasize equality.Because the debate has institutional roots, Rawls's mediation efforts are unlikely to succeed.If you observe deeply, it is not difficult to find the inconsistency between the two principles of justice, and even mutual exclusion to a certain extent.This also makes Rawls's theory actually unable to produce the social effect he hoped for.This is the reason why it has been criticized from two aspects.Critics of Rawls have put forward various points, such as: there is no reason to think that the principles of justice are above all utilitarian considerations, the veil of ignorance is entirely artificial, it is unreasonable that political rights are absolutely superior to socioeconomic rights, the second principle is absolutely unreasonable, and so on.I am afraid that under the current basic social structure in the United States, the theory of justice as fairness is difficult to accept, at least it is difficult to be fully accepted, and thus it is difficult to achieve the goal of reformism. The two principles of justice have a lot of idealism and more moral elements.The emergence of a concept of justice requires objective material conditions. It cannot be produced out of thin air. Without mature social conditions, it is impossible to change the concept of justice.Under Western systems, the two principles of justice have no such basis.Rawls saw this, and he put the basis of justice on personal moral value, self-discipline, self-unity and consistency, etc., but failed to find an objective basis.The entire third book is devoted to this purpose.Rawls stated that he would use the concept of justice based on individualism to explain social values ​​and explain the inherent goodness in institutions, associations, and communication activities (Section 41).The choice of the principle of justice makes people have a sense of justice and moral feelings, and the sense of justice and moral feelings are the conditions for the continuation of the principle of justice.This becomes a moral argument of reciprocal causation.Rawls also places great emphasis on acquiring a person's "capacity for moral personality" (section 77).This seems to place the realization of the principle of justice on the sublimation of human morality.However, human morality and justice are constrained by social conditions. Without the reform of social conditions, moral innovation cannot be discussed.Sometimes historical movement is manifested as the interaction between morality and history, but purely relying on morality is probably an incomplete theory. This shortcoming of Rawls' theory is also manifested in his belief in changing reality with ideas.Throughout Rawls's theory, he believes that a perfect concept of justice can reform the social system, and hardly mentions the decisive role of people's material life style and production mode.Historical materialism emphasizes the restrictive effect of material conditions or social existence on social consciousness, ignoring this point, it is unrealistic to change society.certainly.Ideas are not useless, but they must be combined with the development of material life.Perhaps Rawls saw the difficulty of changing these conditions, so he hoped for the sublimation of human inner morality.He concludes the book with the statement: "Purity of heart, if attainable, will enable a man to see things clearly, and ... to act with reason and self-control." (Section 87) Can one achieve a pure heart?This simple question reveals doubts that Rawls himself may have harbored. 是一部学术内容丰富、思辨难度颇大的著作，它不仅反映了西方学术界20年来争论的主要问题，而且深刻反映了西方社会的内在矛盾，为读者思考正义问题提供了极好的文献。因此，我们应当感谢辛勤迻译此书的谢廷光先生和出版此书的上海译文出版社。 Wang Huning