John Rawls
JOHN RAWLS  Macroknow Library
   

   
A Theory of Justice. " . . . [E]xtorted promises are void ab initio."1a*

" . . . [I]n order to make a binding promise, one must be fully conscious, in a rational frame of mind, and know the meaning of the operative words, their use in making promises, . . . Furthermore, these words must be spoken freely or voluntarily, when one is not subject to threats or coercion, and in situations where one has a reasonably fair bargaining position . . ."1b

" . . . [T]o employ the coercive apparatus of the state in order to maintain manifestly unjust institutions is itself a form of illegitimate force that men in due course have a right to resist."1c ORIGEN GANDHI ZINN  PAGELS

"The bad man desires arbitrary power . . . What moves the evil man is the love of injustice . . . "1d FROMM


     
   

* Italics in the original.

1 John Rawls (1921-2002). A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of the Harvard University Press, 1971.
a The Arguments for the Principle of Fairness, at 343.
b The Arguments for the Principle of Fairness, at 345.
c The Role of Civil Disobedience, at 391.
d The Definition of Good Applied to Persons, at 439.