In this excerpt from his work, “A Theory of Justice,” the author aims to describe an alternative to utilitarian theory. He compares justice as fairness with familiar variants of intutionism, perfectionism, and utilitarianism in order to bring out the underlying differences in the simplest way. He criticizes the manner in which utilitarianism relies on the concept of an impartial sympathetic spectator and posits that the theory does not take seriously the distinction between persons.
