A central argument of the book is that Rawls' theory relies on a conception of the self that is "unencumbered," meaning that individuals are considered as free, rational agents independent of particular social, historical, or communal ties.

This notion is exemplified in Rawls' original position, a hypothetical decision-making scenario in which individuals choose principles of justice behind a "veil of ignorance," unaware of their personal characteristics, social status, or particular values.

At a surface level, Sandel’s claim is that Rawlsian liberalism risks portraying moral choices as isolated, rational calculations, rather than as deeply embedded in one's existing values and traditions.

Instead, he suggests that our moral reasoning is inherently situated – it emerges from within a web of pre-existing obligations, narratives, and self-understandings that cannot be bracketed away without distorting the reality of ethical life.

The effort to construct a just society without endorsing any particular conception of the good, Sandel argues, already assumes a particular liberal ethic—one that prioritizes individual autonomy over more embedded forms of belonging.

The second edition includes a new introduction in which Sandel responds to further developments in political philosophy, particularly the continued influence of Rawls' ideas and the rise of deliberative democracy.

The revised edition also reflects on the broader implications of the communitarian critique and discusses how debates surrounding liberalism and its alternatives evolved in the years following the book’s original publication.

He compared Sandel's views to those of the philosophers F. H. Bradley, Thomas Hill Green, and Bernard Bosanquet, but believed that his work was open to criticism in that it did not advance sufficiently beyond them and left some questions unresolved.

"[5] The philosopher Jonathan Wolff wrote that Sandel provides the fullest development of the argument that Rawls bases his political philosophy on an untenable metaphysics of the self.

[6] The philosopher Will Kymlicka wrote that Liberalism and the Limits of Justice is Sandel's best-known book, and helped start the liberalism-communitarianism debate that dominated Anglo-American political philosophy in the 1980s.