But presumably there will be discrepancies. In this case we have a choice. We can either modify the account of the initial situation or we can revisit our existing judgements, for even the judgements we originally take as fixed are liable to revision. By going back and forth,sometimes altering the conditions of the contractual circumstances, at others withdrawing our judgements and conforming them to principle,I assume that eventually we shall find a description of the initial situation that both expresses reasonable condition and yields principles. This state of affairs I refer to as reflective equilibrium. It is an equilibrium because at last our principles and judgements coincide:and it is reflective since we know to what principles our judgements conform and the premise of their derivaton. At the moment everything is in order. But this equilibrium is not necessarily stable. It is liable to be upset by further examination of the conditions which should be imposed on the contractual situation and by particular cases which may lead us revise our judgements. Yet for the time being we have done what we can to render coherent and to justify our conviction s of social justice. We have reached a conception of original position..