John Rawls is 100 this week! What made Rawls great isn't just that A Theory of Justice (1971) is a remarkable book. What is more remarkable is that rather than becoming an attendant to the vast structure he elaborated in A Justice, Rawls transformed it. That's the first remarkable thing. The second remarkable thing is how he transformed it.

The changes Rawls made to his original theory were significant, but they were also limited. It's helpful to see it not as a demolition but a redesignation. The main thing Rawls changed was the function of his theory. In Political Liberalism, 1993, Rawls moves from a moral theory about social and economic justice to a more political theory contingently appropriate to modern liberal democracies.

Think of it as a master craftsperson building a coffee table. Then, after years of reflection, changing it's function - now it is a bench. The craftsperson does make some structural changes, but the main transformation is a redesignation of function.

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