Key Arguments

• Rawls explicitly narrows the topic to social justice and states that “for us the primary subject of justice is the basic structure of society,” thereby distinguishing it from the many other things we call just or unjust (acts, persons, attitudes).
• He defines the basic structure more exactly as “the way in which the major social institutions distribute fundamental rights and duties and determine the division of advantages from social cooperation,” tying justice to institutional patterns of distribution.
• He clarifies what counts as major institutions by listing examples such as “the political constitution and the principal economic and social arrangements,” including “the legal protection of freedom of thought and liberty of conscience, competitive markets, private property in the means of production, and the monogamous family.”
• These institutions, “taken together as one scheme,” are said to “define men’s rights and duties and influence their life-prospects, what they can expect to be and how well they can hope to do,” underscoring why they are central for questions of justice.
• The basic structure is designated “the primary subject of justice because its effects are so profound and present from the start,” indicating both depth and temporal priority of its influence on individuals’ lives.

Source Quotes

We also call the attitudes and dispositions of persons, and persons themselves, just and unjust. Our topic, however, is that of social justice. For us the primary subject of justice is the basic structure of society, or more exactly, the way in which the major social institutions distribute fundamental rights and duties and determine the division of advantages from social cooperation. By major institutions I understand the political constitution and the principal economic and social arrangements.

For us the primary subject of justice is the basic structure of society, or more exactly, the way in which the major social institutions distribute fundamental rights and duties and determine the division of advantages from social cooperation. By major institutions I understand the political constitution and the principal economic and social arrangements. Thus the legal protection of freedom of thought and liberty of conscience, competitive markets, private property in the means of production, and the monogamous family are examples of major social institutions.

By major institutions I understand the political constitution and the principal economic and social arrangements. Thus the legal protection of freedom of thought and liberty of conscience, competitive markets, private property in the means of production, and the monogamous family are examples of major social institutions. Taken together as one scheme, the major institutions define men’s rights and duties and influence their life-prospects, what they can expect to be and how well they can hope to do.

Thus the legal protection of freedom of thought and liberty of conscience, competitive markets, private property in the means of production, and the monogamous family are examples of major social institutions. Taken together as one scheme, the major institutions define men’s rights and duties and influence their life-prospects, what they can expect to be and how well they can hope to do. The basic structure is the primary subject of justice because its effects are so profound and present from the start.

Taken together as one scheme, the major institutions define men’s rights and duties and influence their life-prospects, what they can expect to be and how well they can hope to do. The basic structure is the primary subject of justice because its effects are so profound and present from the start. The intuitive notion here is that this structure contains various social positions and that men born into different positions have different expectations of life determined, in part, by the political system as well as by economic and social circumstances.

Key Concepts

• our topic, however, is that of social justice. For us the primary subject of justice is the basic structure of society, or more exactly, the way in which the major social institutions distribute fundamental rights and duties and determine the division of advantages from social cooperation.
• By major institutions I understand the political constitution and the principal economic and social arrangements.
• Thus the legal protection of freedom of thought and liberty of conscience, competitive markets, private property in the means of production, and the monogamous family are examples of major social institutions.
• Taken together as one scheme, the major institutions define men’s rights and duties and influence their life-prospects, what they can expect to be and how well they can hope to do.
• The basic structure is the primary subject of justice because its effects are so profound and present from the start.

Context

Early in §2, Rawls specifies what he will treat as the primary subject of his theory of social justice, distinguishing the basic structure from other candidates for the application of justice.