Configure John Rawls’ theory of justice
Configure John Rawls’ theory of justice John Rawls was an American political
philosopher in the liberal tradition. His theory of justice as fairness describes a society of free citizens holding
equal basic rights and cooperating within an egalitarian economic system. His
theory of political liberalism explores the legitimate use of political power in a
democracy, and envisions how civic unity might endure despite the diversity of
worldviews that free institutions allow. His writings on the law of peoples set out a liberal foreign policy that aims
to create a permanently peaceful and tolerant international order.
Four Roles of Political Philosophy
Rawls sees political
philosophy as fulfilling a minimum of four roles during a society’s public
culture. the primary role is practical: philosophy can propose grounds for
reasoned agreement when sharp political divisions threaten to steer to violent
conflict. Rawls cites Hobbes’s Leviathan as an effort to unravel the matter of
order during English war , Locke’s Letter on Toleration as responding to the
Wars of faith , also because the philosophy that emerged from the debates over
the US Constitution, and from debates over the extension of slavery before the
American war .
A second role of
political philosophy is to assist citizens to orient themselves within their
own social world. Configure John Rawls’ theory of justice Philosophy
can meditate on what it's to be a member of a particular society—in a
democracy, an equal citizen—and offer a unifying framework for answering divisive
questions on how people thereupon political status should relate to every
other.
A third role is to probe
the bounds of political possibility. Political philosophy must describe
workable political arrangements which will gain support from real people. Yet
within these limits, philosophy are often utopian: it can depict a social order
that's the simplest that we will hope for. Given humans as they're , philosophy
imagines laws as they could be.
A fourth role of
political philosophy is reconciliation: “to calm our frustration and rage
against our society and its history by showing us the way during which its
institutions… are rational, and developed over time as they did to achieve
their present, rational form” (JF, 3). Philosophy can show that human life
isn't simply domination and cruelty, prejudice, folly and corruption; but that,
a minimum of in some ways, it's better that it's become because it is.
Rawls views his own work
as a practical contribution to resolving the long-standing tension in democratic
thought between liberty and equality, and to limning the bounds of civic and of
international toleration. He offers the members of democratic countries how of
understanding themselves as free and equal citizens of a society that's fair to
all or any , and he describes a hopeful vision of a stably just constitutional
democracy doing its part within a peaceful international community. Configure
John Rawls’ theory of justice, To
individuals who are frustrated that their fellow citizens and fellow humans
don't see the entire truth as they are doing , Rawls offers the reconciling
thought that this diversity of worldviews results from, and may support, a
social order with greater freedom for all.
John Rawls’ Theory of Justice
Configure John Rawls’ theory of justice Rawls’s solution to the
challenge of legitimacy in a liberal society is for political power to be
exercised in accordance with a political conception of justice. A
political conception of justice is an interpretation of the fundamental ideas
implicit in that society’s public political culture.
A
political conception is not derived from any particular comprehensive doctrine,
nor is it a compromise among the worldviews that happen to exist in society at
the moment. Rather, a political conception is freestanding: its content is set
out independently of the comprehensive doctrines that citizens affirm.
Reasonable citizens, who want to cooperate with one another on mutually
acceptable terms, will see that a freestanding political conception generated
from ideas in the public political culture is the only basis for cooperation
that all citizens can reasonably be expected to endorse. Configure John Rawls’
theory of justice The
use of coercive political power guided by the principles of a political
conception of justice will therefore be legitimate.
The
three most fundamental ideas that Rawls finds in the public political culture
of a democratic society are that citizens are free and equal,
and that society should be a fair system of cooperation. All
liberal political conceptions of justice will therefore be centered on
interpretations of these three fundamental ideas.
Because
there are many reasonable interpretations of “free,” “equal” and “fair,” there
will be many liberal political conceptions of justice. Since all the members of
this family interpret the same three fundamental ideas, however, all liberal
political conceptions of justice will share certain basic features:
1. A liberal political
conception of justice will ascribe to all citizens familiar individual rights
and liberties, such as rights of free expression, liberty of conscience, and
free choice of occupation;
2. A political conception
will give special priority to these rights and liberties, especially over
demands to further the general good or perfectionist values (e.g., to promote a
particular view of human flourishing);
3. A political conception
will assure for all citizens sufficient all-purpose means to make effective use
of their freedoms.
Configure John Rawls’ theory of justice These abstract features
must, Rawls says, be realized in certain kinds of institutions. He mentions
several demands that all liberal conceptions of justice will make on
institutions: a decent distribution of income and wealth; fair opportunities
for all citizens, especially in education and training; government as the
employer of last resort; basic health care for all citizens; and public financing
of elections.
The
use of political power in a liberal society will be legitimate if it is
employed in accordance with the principles of any liberal conception of
justice. By Rawls’s criteria, a libertarian conception of justice is not a
liberal political conception of justice. Libertarianism does not assure all
citizens sufficient means to make use of their basic liberties, and it permits
excessive inequalities of wealth and power. Configure John Rawls’ theory of justice By contrast, Rawls’s own
conception of justice (justice as fairness) does qualify as a member of the
family of liberal political conceptions of justice.
Ideal and Non-Ideal Theory
Within each sub-domain of the political Rawls also
follows a sequence: ideal theory before non-ideal theory. Ideal theory makes
two sorts of idealizing assumptions about its material . First, ideal theory
assumes that each one actors (citizens or societies) are generally willing to
suits whatever principles are chosen. Ideal theory thus idealizes away the
likelihood of law-breaking, either by individuals (crime) or societies
(aggressive war). Second, ideal theory assumes reasonably favorable social
conditions, wherein citizens and societies are ready to abide by principles of
political cooperation. Configure John Rawls’ theory of justice Citizens
aren't so driven by hunger, for instance , that their capacity for moral
reasoning is overwhelmed; nor are nations struggling to beat famine or the
failure of their states.
Configure John Rawls’ theory
of justice Completing ideal theory first, Rawls says, yields a
scientific understanding of the way to reform our non-ideal world, and fixes a
vision (mentioned above) of what's the simplest which will be hoped for. Once
ideal theory is completed for a political sub-domain, non-ideal theory are
often began by regard to the perfect . as an example , once we discover ideal
principles for citizens who are often productive members of society over an
entire life, we'll be better ready to frame non-ideal principles for providing
health care to citizens with serious illnesses or disabilities. Similarly, once
we understand the perfect principles of diplomacy , we'll better see how the
international community should act toward failed states, also as toward
aggressive states that threaten the peace.
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