The course will critically examine the notion of justice, which is at the foundation of modern liberal democracy and provides the moral justification of the existence of political society. In the first part of the course, we shall review the philosophical origins of the concept of justice in western thought; especially in light of the revolutionary change in European political theory during the 17th century, and the principles of John Rawls' theory of justice as fairness, which is considered the greatest theoretical achievement of political thought in the 20th century. In the second part, we shall consider dilemmas and difficulties that were raised by critics of Rawls' theory, and clarify central issues such as the tension between individualism and collectivism and between liberty and equality, the multi-cultural challenge to liberalism against the background of the collapse of its historical partnership with capitalism, and the feminist challenge to multi-culturalism.