Key Arguments

• Rawls explicitly defines the general conception by listing the social primary goods ('liberty and opportunity, income and wealth, and the bases of self-respect') and stipulating equality as the default pattern of distribution.
• He allows departures from equality only under a strict condition: that 'an unequal distribution of any or all of these goods is to the advantage of the least favored', thereby making the situation of the least advantaged the standard for justifying inequalities in any primary good.
• By formulating the rule in terms of 'all social primary goods', Rawls extends the difference‑principle logic beyond income and wealth to cover liberties, opportunities, and self‑respect, thus presenting this as a unified, general conception distinct from the more structured two‑principle serial ordering.

Source Quotes

General Conception All social primary goods—liberty and opportunity, income and wealth, and the bases of self-respect—are to be distributed equally unless an unequal distribution of any or all of these goods is to the advantage of the least favored. By way of comment, these principles and priority rules are no doubt incomplete.

Key Concepts

• General Conception All social primary goods—liberty and opportunity, income and wealth, and the bases of self-respect—are to be distributed equally unless an unequal distribution of any or all of these goods is to the advantage of the least favored.

Context

Opening sentence of the 'General Conception' summary section, where Rawls states a compact, overarching formulation of justice as fairness in terms of the distribution of all social primary goods.