Rawls (1921–2002) began by positing justice as the cardinal virtue of society. All societies value the concept of justice in a primary sense, although they have different “conceptions of justice.” Rawls’ conception of justice was that it can be understood as fairness. On that model he proposed that a society would be just if its fundamental institutions were just, which would entail equal access to official positions. As a way of determining how fundamental institutions could be just, Rawls proposed a thought experiment that posited an “original position.”