Rawls as a modernity theorist

This thesis puts forward an innovative rational reconstruction of Rawlsian political philosophy. In doing so, it situates Rawls in the post-Kantian (specifically Marxian) and socio-theoretic traditions. It is argued that the reconstruction is not only a fruitful reconstruction of Rawlsian political philosophy but also analytic English-language political philosophy more generally if we want analytic English-language political philosophy to play a constructive role in the guiding and evaluation of political action in the real world and, in doing so, take history and social context (including existing social structures) seriously. Thus the thesis as a whole attempts to show that Rawls offers a promising, albeit largely unrecognised, basis for progress in analytic English-language political philosophy