Rawl's Theory Of Justice Research Paper

An impartial perspective on the issue of justice has a long history in the philosophical though. The idea of moral point of view was an important subject for Adam Smith, Hume or Kant. Rawls’ idea of original position is a continuation of that liberal line of thought with the addition of contractarian elements. Unlike, for example, Kant’s categorical imperative formula, justice as fairness is primarily a social procedure. Apart from our natural, individual rights and duties outside society, the rights and duties of justice that persons owe each other in the society can be determined only socially. So, a highly abstract conception of the idea of social contract is employed, firstly through the conception of original position.

Rawls designs

First principle of equal basic rights and liberties mostly regulates the political branch of the basic structure while the second principle applies to the economic institutions. First one has priority over second principle in terms of their fulfillment. Second principle has two parts, that inequalities must be attached to positions and offices open to all and that inequalities must expected to be to everyone’s advantage. The latter implies that natural endowments like talents or wealth is undeserved and they can be just only when they’re used to make everyone better off. When applied together, these principles forbid the exchange of basic liberties for economic

According to the principle of redress, normative way of dealing with inequalities is to provide artificial advantages to those who are naturally disadvantaged over those who are better equipped for the struggle. The difference principle, on the other hand, prefers to enhance the situation of the disadvantaged not in comparative but in absolute terms. To provide better opportunities to the more advantaged is justified as long as those advantages are going to be used for the common good. In the same fashion with the principle of redress, difference principle also eliminates the obsession with efficiency in the basic structure and employs a more humane