← Lineage & Critique

A Theory of Justice · 1971

John Rawls

ANCESTORADOPTEDDIVERGED

The closest ancestor in the register: the constitutional spine and the veil, imported as a graduated debiasing vote; diverges on sufficientarian floors not maximin, and a ten-axis capability metric not primary goods.

Edition read. A Theory of Justice — read at the source.

What we took

The closest ancestor in the register. Priority-of-right, moral-arbitrariness and the common-asset view — which grounds rent-to-commons — the basic structure, and the veil, imported as a graduated debiasing vote that finalises how a democratic vote makes value objective-for-governance. Plus the lexical-then-weighted architecture, the just-savings posterity axis, and self-respect as the master good.

Where we diverge — and how we answer

Diverges on exactly two points: sufficientarian floors, not maximin (a value vector is threshold-commensurable but not maximand-commensurable); and a ten-axis capability metric, not primary goods — completing his own "normal range" bracket. It adds an anti-concentration ceiling for the fair value of political liberty.

The net position

The closest ancestor in the register — the constitutional spine adopted almost whole, with two conscious, bounded departures.

Every position is read at the source. See the whole register on Lineage & Critique, or the doctrine itself in The System.