John Rawls’ Theory of Justice: From Moral Justice to PoliticalJustice

The present article pursues the development of Rawls’ theory ofjustice from moral justice to political justice. Envolving Rawls'stheory of justice has two seminal stages. In the first, Rawlsintroduces fundamental concepts such as social contract, originalposition, and reflective equilibrium; these concepts have moralphilosophicalcontent. In the second, represented in his politicalliberalism and justice as fairness, Rawls introduces concepts likepluralism, well ordered society, public reason, and overlappingconsensus. Explicating these concepts makes it easy to realize thathow Ralws's theory is developed. Having discussed thisdevelopment, the article concludes that also the second stage ofRawls’ theory has moral-philosophical content.