Realistic Utopia

Rawls perceives political philosophy as “realistically utopian: that is, as probing the limits of practical political possibility.”1 Rawls considers it vital to establish that it is not unreasonable to hope for a just and stable pluralist constitutional liberal democracy. In his words, “Our hope for the future of our society rests on the belief that the social world allows for at least a decent political order, so that a reasonably just, though not perfect, democratic regime is possible.”2 Rawls even states in the introductory remarks to Political Liberalism that the practice of political philosophy may be meaningless unless we sincerely believe that a just, stable democratic regime can be achieved.3 For Rawls, justice as fairness functions not only as the blueprint for the realistic utopia he envisions but also as a source of symbolic hope that we can one day live in just and stable society.

  1. John Rawls, Justice as Fairness: A Restatement, ed. Erin Kelly, (Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2001), 4.
  2. Ibid.
  3. John Rawls, Political Liberalism: Expanded Edition (New York: Columbia University Press, 2005), lx.

« Back to Glossary Index