John Rawls: Reticent Socialist: Ideal Theory and Practical Demands

This book is the first detailed reconstruction of the late work of John Rawls. John Rawls is considered to be one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century. Well known for his writings as a political philosopher, Rawls also commented on economic and developmental psychology topics. His book A Theory of Justice has produced a considerable number of commentaries on Rawls' theory of “justice-as-fairness”.

In this volume Edmundson explores the generally accepted notion that Rawls was a defender of welfare-state capitalism as found in Western Europe and the United States. He points out that shortly before his death, Rawls expanded on what type of regime meet his criteria of a just state in his Justice as Fairness: A Restatement. Edmundson further develops Rawls' ideas on what our individual duties of justice are when we find ourselves in a society that falls short of justice and fairness.

• John Rawls: Reticent Socialist presents a new interpretation that encompasses all of Rawls's published work, providing a reconstruction of Rawls's overall theory as a result of forty years of revision.
• Edmundson presents Rawls's argument against the justice of capitalism in liberal democracies, enabling the both the novice and advanced reader to easily grasp the radical thrust of Rawls's work.
• Edmundson demonstrates how Rawls's reworked argument for 'justice as fairness' leads to socialism, revealing to scholar and student what the greatest political philosopher of the past century means to us now.