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Rawls is best known for the way he sets up the context in which the principles of justice are to be chosen.

We can focus on three concepts that Rawls made famous:

His goal is to define the original position and the people (he usually calls them "parties") in the original position in such a way that whatever principles of justice the people choose or agree to are the appropriate principles of justice for their society. There is are no independent criteria for choosing principles. Everything depends on the original position and the nature of the parties who find themselves in that position.

Lets take these three concepts one at a time. First, the original position.