罗尔斯早年在其本科毕业论文《论罪与信的涵义》中表述了一个重要的思想,即他基于对社会共同体的重视与强调而展开的对"自我中心主义"的批判,而前者尤其是由后者来彰显的。在青年罗尔斯看来,对共同体最大的危险还不是一种各自追求自己物欲的"利己主义",而是一种似乎是追求理想"大我"、但本质上却还是一种以一己之"小我"为中心的政治上的"自我中心主义"。罗尔斯那时持有一种有机和神圣的共同体的观点,"罪"与"信"这两个概念的涵义也是联系于"共同体"来得到界定的。罗尔斯对"自我中心主义"的批判最能彰显其早年共同体理论的特色,迄今仍具有重要的时代意义。

John Rawls expressed an important thought in his thesis for Bachelor Degree,A Brief Inquiry into the Meaning of Sin and Faith.He criticized egotism on his basic concept of the community.Rawls thought that the greatest danger to the community is not the egoism which seeks individual material desire.The most important threat to the community is a kind of egotism,a political ego centralism centered on individual egotism.Rawls also defined the two concepts,sin and faith,by the central concept of the community.Rawls' criticism of egotism constituted the distinct characteristic of his theory of the community,and also reflected deep meaning of the time.