A Theory of Justice is a political work written by john rawls, a professor at Harvard University. It was first published in 197 1, and Rawls revised it again in 1999 to respond to the criticism after the book was published.

A Theory of Justice has three chapters. 1 Chapter talks about "theory" and discusses the definition, historical development, function, connotation and original state of justice. The second part is "system", which analyzes social and political system, economic system and civil life with the principle of justice.

The third chapter is "purpose", which discusses some topics in the field of ethics, including kindness, self-esteem, virtue, self-discipline, sense of justice, sense of morality and so on. The author puts forward two principles of justice in the book: the principle of equality and freedom; A mixture of fairness principle, equal opportunity principle and difference principle.

A Theory of Justice is a book with rich academic content and difficult speculation. It not only reflects the main issues debated in western academic circles in recent 20 years, but also profoundly reflects the internal contradictions in western society, providing readers with a document to think about justice. Since the publication of 197 1, the book has sold 250,000 copies worldwide, translated into 23 languages, and studied and commented on by more than 5,000 papers.