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Rawls A Theory of Justice: Comments, Utilitarianism, Rights

Then & Now: Philosophy, History & Politics

CHAPTER

Utilitarianism and the Individual Rights Problem

The best utilitarian framework to have is to have a system of individual rights that cannot be violated. Following a set of rules leads to the greater net prosperity in the long term, he says. But once you start inserting rules like this, especially rules to do with specific rights, it becomes unrecognizable as utilitarianism and it becomes something else. "It's only from a white supremacist bubble that he can be considered the greatest theorist on justice despite mentioning race only a handful of superficial times"

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