Abstract: This chapter first addresses the informational bases of justice. It then goes on to discuss and give a critique of the Rawlsian theory of justice as fairness, which is regarded by Rawls himself as a political conception. The assessment of justice is discussed in terms of distribution of primary goods (which include rights, liberties and opportunities, income and wealth, and the social bases of self-respect), and in terms of capabilities (the freedoms enjoyed by people to choose lives that they value). The last part of the chapter addresses the issue of human diversity in the Rawlsian theory of justice as fairness.

Keywords: assessment, capabilities, fairness, freedom, human diversity, justice, primary goods, Rawls,