CAMBRIDGE (USA), Nov 28: John Rawls, a towering figure of 20th century political philosophy who embraced the rights of the individual over the greater good of society, has died at the age of 81, Harvard University said on Monday.

The reclusive Harvard professor died on Sunday of heart failure at his home in Lexington, Massachusetts. He had suffered a series of debilitating strokes that eventually left him unable to work.

Rawls revived liberal political philosophy in with his 1971 book “A Theory of Justice”, in which he argued for a political philosophy based on equality and individual rights.

“Justice denies that the loss of freedom for some can ever be made right by a greater good shared by others,” Rawls wrote. “Therefore, in a just society the rights secured by justice are not subject to political bargaining or to the calculus of social interests.”

Though his writing was described by one critic as “slow-moving and graceless,” his theories traveled widely — reportedly influencing the Chinese dissidents who demonstrated in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

“Rawls was certainly one of the most important philosophers in the world today,” said Charles Kay, a professor at Wofford College in South Carolina. “His work helped save the discipline from sliding into irrelevancy by demonstrating how philosophy can and should make a difference outside the halls of academia.”

Harvard University President Lawrence Summers said Rawls combined profound wisdom with equally profound humanity.

“Few if any modern philosophers have had as decisive an impact on how we think about justice. Scholars in many different fields will continue to learn from him for generations to come,” Summers said.—Reuters