August 2022 Catalogue

– 51 – A u g u s t 2 0 2 2 “The Most Substantial And Interesting Contribution To Moral Philosophy Since The War” 60. RAWLS, John. A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1971. Octavo, original purple cloth, dust jacket. $6500. First edition, first printing, of John Rawls’ landmark work, a milestone in political philosophy, a handsome copy in original dust jacket. John Rawls “was arguably the most important political philosopher of the 20th century… His first book, A Theory of Justice, revitalized the social-contract tradition, using it to articulate and defend a detailed vision of egalitarian liberalism” (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy). Here Rawls gives “new specificity and vigor to one of the most valuable legacies of the liberal political tradition: the idea that a person has a dignity and worth that social structures should not be permitted to violate” (Chronicle of Higher Education). Rawls “will be in the canon for centuries, along with Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Kant, Mill” (Harvard Gazette). Rawls received the National Humanities Medal in 1999 for his body of work. Book fine; faint edgewear, rubbing, mild toning to spine of bright near-fine dust jacket. “Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought.”

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