philosophy

Philosophy 101, Summer Semester 2021

Handout # 9

John Rawls, A Theory of Justice

The Original Position

1. The Original Position and the State of Nature

· Like a state of nature, the original position is a thought experiment

· It is supposed to make clear what the guiding principles of a just society would be.

2. Design of the Original Position

· Equality: nobody is privileged

· Self-Interest: participants are conceived as ‘…not taking an interest in one another’s interests’. (13)

3. The ‘Veil of Ignorance’

· No one should be advantaged or disadvantaged by natural fortune or social circumstances.

· Ignorance of Actual Position in Society

· Ignorance of Distribution of Natural Assets and Abilities, Intelligence, Strength

· Knowledge only of very general principles of reasoning

· Thus, principles of justice are chosen from behind a ‘veil of ignorance’

Procedure of Agreement

1. Fairness

· Initial situation is ‘fair between individuals as moral persons’

2. Scope of Choice

· Choice of (a) first principles of a conception of justice, (b) a constitution and legislature

Against Utilitarianism

1. Utilitarianism

· The idea that justice will yield the greatest sum of advantages for a society as a whole

· Agents in the original position would not opt for a utilitarian scheme.

Justice as Fairness

1. First Principle of Justice

· ‘Equality in the assignment of basic rights and duties’

· E.g. the right to vote, the right to move freely, the right to express one’s opinion

· These rights are so basic that everybody is entitled to them equally.

2. Second Principle of Justice

· ‘Social and economic inequalities, for example inequalities of wealth and authority, are just only if they result in compensating benefits for everyone, and in particular for the least advantaged members of society’.

· The second principle is mainly concerned with distributive justice.

· Certain distributive inequalities are beneficial for all and will thus be chosen in the original position.

· Goods that result from these inequalities must be distributed so as to particularly (though not solely) benefit the worst off.

The Reflective Equilibrium

1. A means to check the outcome of a deliberative process arrived at in the original position.

· Is the result of this process capable of accommodating ‘our firmest convictions’?

· If so, there is a balance between convictions and purely rational deliberation.

· To arrive at this equilibrium, it might be necessary to go ‘back and forth’ several times.

Questions for Consideration

· What kind of society would Rawls’s theory yield? Would it resemble any society we know?

· Do you agree with Rawls’s contention that agents would choose the two principles of justice in the original position?