Justice as fairness: a restatement

In this work I have two aims. One is to rectify the more serious faults in A Theory of Justice that have obscured the main ideas of justice as fairness, as I called the conception of justice presented in that book. Since I still have confidence in those ideas and think the more important difficulties can be met, I have undertaken this reformulation. I try to improve the exposition, to correct a number of mistakes, to include some useful revisions, and to indicate replies to a few of the more common objections. I also recast the argument at many points. The other aim is to connect into one unified statement the conception of justice presented in Theory and the main ideas found in my essays beginning with 1974.
For those who have some acquaintance with Theory, the main changes are of three kinds: first, changes in the formulation and content of the two principles of justice used in justice as fairness; second, changes in how the argument for those principles from the original position is organized; and third, changes in how justice as fairness itself is to be understood: namely, as a political conception of justice rather than as part of a comprehensive moral doctrine.