A Society Regulated By A Public Sense

A Just System Must Generate Its Own Support.

First Of All, Principles Should Be General. That Is, It Must Be Possible To Formulate Them Without Use Of What Would Be Intuitively Recognized As Proper Names, Or Rigged Definite Descriptions.

There Are Two Kinds Of Comprehensive Doctrines, Religious And Secular. Those Of Religious Faith Will Say I Give A Veiled Argument For Secularism, And The Latter Will Say I Give A Veiled Argument For Religion. I Deny Both. Each Side Presumes The Basic Ideas Of Constitutional Democracy, So My Suggestion Is That We Can Make Our Political Arguments In Terms Of Public Reason. Then We Stand On Common Ground. That's How We Can Understand Each Other And Cooperate.

We Must Choose For Others As We Have Reason To Believe They Would Choose For Themselves If They Were At The Age Of Reason And Deciding Rationally.

Justice Is The First Virtue Of Social Institutions, As Truth Is Of Systems Of Thought. A Theory However Elegant And Economical Must Be Rejected Or Revised If It Is Untrue; Likewise Laws And Institutions No Matter How Efficient And Well-arranged Must Be Reformed Or Abolished If They Are Unjust.