Justice as Fairness by John Rawls

Abstract

John Rawls is one of the most famous moral philosophers of the twentieth century. His ideas formed the most famous book of his life, A Theory of Justice (1971). He spent more than ten years in making the subject more useful. This book has proved to be very useful in the field of justice, as well as, politics. He changed the utilitarian view of the greatest good for the great number to a system of justice that is based on fairness. Rawls' A Theory of Justice consists of two main ideas: the 'original position' and the 'veil of ignorance'.

Table of Content

Abstracti

Introduction1

Discussion1

Rawls Theory of Justice2

Justice as Fairness4

Conclusion6

Works Cited7

Justice as Fairness by John Rawls

Introduction

John Rawls is a key figure, arguably the key figure, in twentieth century Western political philosophy. His work reinvigorated a relatively stagnant field of enquiry and those writing later could modify, refine or reject his view, but they could not ignore it. Rawls revives contractualism although his contractualism is quite unlike that of Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau and Kant. The type of contract Rawls is interested in is not one to which actual people would necessarily agree in the real world. It is, rather, one which suitably abstracted persons would agree to in a suitably abstracted situation. Rawls takes himself to be presenting a conception of justice and the contractualist move is part of the particular conception of justice which he wishes to defend (Fletcher 428).

'Justice as fairness' is a very early statement of Rawls's view (1958). The full version of the theory is presented in “A theory of justice” (1971, 1999).

Discussion

Rawls' original position means that the society should have an original starting point which includes the 'Primary Goods.' These primary goods consist of the necessities i.e. freedom, opportunity, equality, income, power and wealth. He says that people should have the primary goods in a society. The concept of the veil of ignorance means that the planners of the society will provide the primary goods without knowing in which category they will fall in the society. The categories include birth, sex, talent and race. He established the concept of the veil of ignorance because he says that every person is drawn by self interest and biases; therefore, to avoid this everyone should be behind the veil of ignorance in order to create a fair social structure (Young 34).

Rawls 'difference principle' is one of the most controversial principles. According to this principle, he says that the social structure will be measured by its impact on the least advantaged people (Young 34). According to this theory, everyone is behind a veil of ignorance and people do not know about their place in society. This helps in creating a fair system in the society. They are unaware of the society; thus, make unbiased decisions.

To create such a society is very difficult because every person knows where he comes from. He knows his birth place, his society and the nature of his position. This will certainly affect the decisions ...