John Rawls

John Rawls was an American political philosopher whose A Theory of Justice revived political philosophy as a serious academic discipline after decades of meta-ethical preoccupation. His framework of justice as fairness, developed through the thought experiment of the "original position" and its "veil of ignorance", argued that rational agents choosing principles of justice without knowing their place in society would select equal basic liberties for all and inequalities only where they benefit the least advantaged members.