Product Description

Each volume of this series of companions to major philosophers contains specially commissioned essays by an international team of scholars and will serve as a reference work for students and nonspecialists. John Rawls is the most significant and influential philosopher and moral philosopher of the twentieth century. His work has profoundly shaped contemporary discussions of social, political and economic justice in philosophy, law, political science, economics and other social disciplines. In this exciting collection of new essays, many of the world’s leading political and moral theorists discuss the full range of Rawls’s contribution to the concepts of political and economic justice, democracy, liberalism, constitutionalism, and international justice. There are also assessments of Rawls’s controversial relationships with feminism, utilitarianism and communitarianism. New readers will find this the most accessible guide to Rawls currently available. Advanced students and specialists will find a conspectus of recent developments in the interpretation of Rawls.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #400149 in Books
• Published on: 2002-11-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 598 pages

Review
'Chapters complement each other well, overlap is minimal, and the level (accessible for beginners, interesting for specialists) is maintained. This addition to a well-established series will go into any self-respecting collection in the field, and personal, and the paperback is certainly a perfect gift for a student at the right time. Well-bound and elegantly type-set, with a superb index, this Companion adds to a literature on Rawls that is likely to grow a lot more in the future.' Reference Reviews

‘There can be little doubt that Rawls will continue to be read and appreciated and this edited compilation is a worthy tribute to his legacy. A constellation of distinguished legal, moral and political philosophers … outline, extend and critique various facets of his work … an important and timely book. It provides an excellent and sophisticated overview of a noble project, and it should be an essential addition to the library of political theorists.’ Cambridge Review of International Affairs

Customer Reviews

Great
The series of "Cambridge Companions" is recognized for doing a impressive job of putting together comphrensive collections of accessible and authoritative articles on leading thinkers. This tome on Rawls justifies that reputation: it is a remarkable series of essays written by a wide range of leading Rawls commentators.

Having said this, I would like to express one reservation, but a qualified one at that. When assembling a collection on any great philosopher, some points of view and some influential interpretations have to be left out. This is simply a function of that philosopher's greatness: the greater he is, the more varying and diverse the interpretations he generates. And one certainly gets the impression that many points of view were left out of this collection.

The authors are, for the most part, quite sympathetic to Rawls and interested in defending him from many of his critics. This is perhaps not surprising, considering that the great majority of them were either his students or colleagues (but then again, many of his most famous critics were as well). The article on Rawls and Communitarianism, for instance, is more of a rebuttal of communitarian interpretations and criticisms of Rawls than it is a communitarian commentary on Rawls. But this, I think, can be forgiven as it is a rebuttal that still leaves you with an impression of what such a communitarian approach generally is. So, though you won't find contributions from Nozick, Sandel, Walzer, Harsanyi, Cavell or Rorty in here, all in all, this remains an excellent volume, both as an introduction to Rawls and for an advanced student.