Final answer:
Justice, according to John Rawls, is a virtue of social institutions which must adhere to principles ensuring basic liberties and the advantageous arrangement of social and economic inequalities to benefit the least advantaged.
Step-by-step explanation:
According to John Rawls, justice is a virtue of social institutions. Rawls' theory, prominently featured in A Theory of Justice, outlines that a just society should be based on two fundamental principles: the liberty principle and the difference principle. The liberty principle emphasizes that everyone should have equal access to a set of basic liberties, while the difference principle requires that social and economic inequalities should be arranged such that they are to the greatest benefit of the least advantaged and attached to positions that are open to all under conditions of fair equality of opportunity. Following his view, justice as fairness is the central principle of social institutions designed within the hypothetical 'original position' behind a 'veil of ignorance', where individuals do not know their place in society, their class, race, or personal advantages, ensuring that no one designs a system that would advantage or disadvantage themselves over others.