John Rawls’s political philosophy is involved in what has been called constructive interpretation. It requires that a theory of justice be limited within the boundaries of political or social practices of any particular society, but not with the most abstract elements. A constructivist conception of justice represents the principles of justice not as part of some abstract moral rules known through theoretical reason, but rather as “the outcome of a procedure of construction” founded in practical reasoning. Rawls argues that reasoning about what justice is demanding should proceed from the social practices which are already established. He maintains that among the many existing social practices, we should attend to the most basic existing social structures (i.e., major institutions) because their effects are “so profound and present from the start.”
