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TABLE OF CONTENTS SECTION PAGE INTRODUCTION………………..…….………………………………………………. 2 RAWLS’S CONTRACTARIAN THEORY….………….………………………………. 3 RAWLS’S ETHICAL PRINCIPLES OF JUSTICE……………………………………. 5 CRITICS OF RAWLS………………..……………………………………………….. 6 PERSONAL ASSESSMENT.....……..……………………………………………….. 8 INTRODUCTION Who was John Rawls and why is he important? John Borden Rawls was born in 1921 into a rich Baltimore family, studied and taught at prestigious universities abroad, which included Oxford, Princeton and Harvard, just to name a few. Today, he has been acknowledged as America’s, and quite possibly the world’s, leading political philosopher. One factor I found interesting in my research is that Rawls doesn’t represent a philosophical theory that dates back to hundreds of years ago (eg. Aristotal, Plato or Kant), but rather represents a powerful and influential argument relating to our current times. Rawls’s political views and theories focused on the epi-center of justice as it relates to our personal freedoms.