Unite sociale et biens premiers

In: Raisons politiques: études de pensée politique, Issue 1, p. 9-43

Abstract

In this article first published in 1982, John Rawls was developing the concept of Primary Goods in line with a certain understanding of the individual. His thesis was that the problem with interpersonal comparisons touched on the foundations of a conception of justice and depends at once on the notion of the individual and on the manner in which social unity must be composed. Comparing the manner in which utilitarianism and its own theory of justice proceeds in connection to interpersonal relations, Rawls believed that the members of society had to be seen as moral persons capable of cooperating with each other for their mutual advantage and not simply as rational individuals having objectives and desires they seek to satisfy. Adapted from the source document.