ipl-logo

Theory Of Justice Analysis

1740 Words7 Pages

Theory of Justice Analysis
A person’s actions and consequences of those behaviors may not only affects self but also have effects on the lives of others. Depending on the ultimate goal of a person’s activities and the type of activities, the ethics of such actions may be geared either towards addressing the actions or towards addressing the outcomes of these actions. Based on the intentions and outcomes of the ethical guidelines they provide, there are four primary classes of ethics including relativism, virtue ethics, deontology, and consequentialism (Tilley, 2005). Rawls’ Theory of Justice aims at overcoming the shortcomings of virtue, consequence, duty, and relativism brought about by other ethical approaches by eliminating various factors …show more content…

For decisions on the distribution of resources to be made, Rawls first assumed decision-makers to be in an original position in which they had self-ignorance of their position in society that results from their decision. This way, people could never tailor their decisions and actions to favor themselves since they do not have prior knowledge of where they would end up in the socioeconomic hierarchy. Lack of awareness of one’s position would result in making decisions fair to everyone. Since economic and social advantages would be distributed without the intention of putting anyone at a disadvantage (Cehan, OPREA, Gavrilovici, & Manea, 2013). Although, agreements made by people in the original position are both historical and hypothetical, the Theory of Justice can act as a guide in a society that pursues equality, whereby inequality is only acceptable if it is to the benefit of the underprivileged.
Principles of the Theory of Justice
Rawls Theory of Justice is guided by two primary guiding principles that are derived from the very workings of the theory including (Sen, 2006).
The First Principle of …show more content…

Protection of fundamental rights and properties of every individual prevents society from turning into a disorderly system. Justice in the modern criminal justice system differs from security in terms of the approaches, but the aims are always similar; maintaining a socially coherent system (Tomkins, 2014). If the security system were not kept in place, all people would seem to be living in an anarchist society, which does not uphold morality as a necessity towards the survival of human beings. Putting up security measures in place, ensuring that violence and crime does not take place will determine and guarantee that all people uphold individual human rights. It is worth noting that the development of a crime and violence-free society is one of the greatest measure that would go a long way in addressing personal and society freedom (Christoph,

Show More
Related
1790 Words | 8 Pages

Rawls was not happy whit the original arguments about what makes a social institution just. The utilitariam argument says that societies should pursue the greatest good for the greatest number. This argument has many problems, excpecially that it seems to be consistant with the belief of majorities over minorities. The institution argument holds that human intuit what is wright or wrong by some innate moral sense. Rawls attempts to provide a good account of social justice through the social contract approach.

Read More
1048 Words | 5 Pages

In our society, people are either born rich and powerful, having the rights and opportunities that those who are born into lower-class would not have. So why should we live in a government system where we allow these inequities to happen? In Justice, Michael J. Sandel discusses John Rawls’ arguments over defining a just society. Rawls believes that “we should reject the contention that the ordering of institution is always defective because the distribution of natural talents and the contingencies of social circumstance are unjust, and this injustice must inevitably carry over to human arrangements. Occasionally this reflection is offered as an excuse for ignoring injustice, as if refusal to acquiesce in injustice is on par with being unable to accept death.

Read More
2258 Words | 10 Pages

The Criminal Justice system is one of the most important vessels within society due to its role in ensuring that society is abiding by its laws and holding those who transgress these laws to account. Despite its crucial role in society, it has also been under some scrutiny in regards to how effective it actually is, which results in arguments that it doesn’t properly fulfil its job as a carrier of justice. A focus on the criminal justice system is a subject of interest because it helps us understand the tension within society between individual rights and freedoms. (Schmalleger, F. and Koppel, T, 1999) Thus, this essay will be arguing that the criminal justice system is indeed broken.

Read More
998 Words | 4 Pages

Society today is extremely proficient at discussing societal issues. Every day it seems we can add another term to describe the interactive experiences of persons within society. Every day we have conversations about these issues. Every day, it seems, we are willing to sit and theorize about how we can remedy these issues but ,very rarely, are we given an embodied lecture on how and when we perpetuate these thoroughly discussed and theorized societal issues. This is what I believe the theatre brings to table.

Read More
893 Words | 4 Pages

8) The cause of this loss of independence is the different biases we all have. We tend to make decisions that would benefit people like us rather than help others that are different from us. Rawls is more concerned with the well-being and happiness of an individual but the different social powers prevents us from achieving equality of

Read More
1573 Words | 7 Pages

It is important for Rawls theory of justice, and what constitutes as justice to be derived from this experiment of the veil. Rawls states that “if a man knew that he was wealthy, he might find it rational to advance the principle that various taxes for welfare measures be counted unjust; if he knew that he were poor, he would most likely propose the contrary principle.   To represent the desired outcome, one must operate independent of such

Read More
908 Words | 4 Pages

Everyone believes that they know the right way to deal with economic justice, however the issue of how to make a society economically just has been a problem debated between many different viewpoints of distributive justice for hundreds of years. These differing viewpoints all bring with them the ability to interpret information provided about the economic conditions in a society and tell if that society is just or not. The five major principles of distributive justice are as follows: libertarian, utilitarian, egalitarian, sufficiency, and priority. Given graphs of the American distribution of wealth and income, I will apply these principles and try to interpret if these graphs reveal and injustice in the distribution of wealth and income in

Read More
1102 Words | 5 Pages

In Rawls’ paper, “Two Concepts of Rules”, he sheds light on fact that a distinction between justifying a practice and actions that fall under said practice, must be made. This distinction, according to Rawls is crucial in the debate between Utilitarianism and Retributivism, more specifically in defending the Utilitarian view against common criticisms, which will be addressed further in this essay. This essay will be examining the troubling moral question that Rawls addresses; The subject of punishment, in the sense of attaching legal penalties to the violation of legal rules. Rawls acknowledges that most people hold the view that punishing, in broad terms, is an acceptable institution. However, there are difficulties involved with accepting

Read More
913 Words | 4 Pages

John Rawls believed that if certain individuals had natural talents, they did not always deserve the benefits that came with having these abilities. Instead, Rawls proposed, these inherent advantages should be used to benefit others. Although Rawls makes an excellent argument on why this should be the case, not all philosophers agreed with his reasoning, especially Robert Nozick. Nozick believed in distributing benefits in a fair manner in accordance with the Entitlement Theory, which has three subsections: Just Acquisition, Just Transfer and Just Rectification.

Read More
1712 Words | 7 Pages

In his Anarchy, State, and Utopia, Robert Nozick describes an interesting and unique theory of justice which focuses not on the person and his rights, but instead considers each person to be a piece of property owned by him or herself. He then describes the rights of this property. In his entitlement theory of justice, Nozick described three principles which outline how one may come to hold property, how property can be justly transferred from one person to another, and how to rectify injustices. According to Nozick, these principles form the basis for identifying injustices. This serves to minimize the power of the state.

Read More
609 Words | 3 Pages

When addressing the difference between just and unjust laws for the clergymen Martin Luther King Jr. stated, A just law is man-made code that squares with the mora law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of Saint Thomas Aquinas, an unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal and natural law.

Read More
958 Words | 4 Pages

Normative ethics is crucial in decision-making in the criminal justice system and it is based on the notion that one should act morally using reason to determine the suitable way of conduct of self. Ethical relativism is part of normative ethics and it argues that what is morally right or wrong varies in a great deal from one person to another. The standards of conduct and methods of doing things differ from one society to another and there can never be a single standard of conduct for all societies; we must make ethical decisions therefore based on each situation. Relativism requires that we judge an individual who acted immorally by the standards of his culture and not our own (Cook, 1999). It is effective in just

Read More
1348 Words | 6 Pages

Rawls’ first principle of justice outlines that social institutions in a just society must aim for maximum equal liberty (Rawls, p. 82). His second principle, the difference principle, justifies inequality, but only when it maximally benefits those who are worse off (Rawls, pp. 65-66). Rawls ‘acknowledges that these principles are an oversimplification of distributive justice, but believes they should be applied to the basic structures of society (Rawls, p. 77). Rawls acknowledges that there needs to be regulations on when civil disobedience is justifiable.

Read More
2679 Words | 11 Pages

According to John Rawls, his ‘A Theory of Justice’ is an attempt to offer a system of justice, which is a viable substitute to the prevalent practice of choosing a deviation of the principle of utilitarianism which is limited by the intuitionism of people (Rawls, viii). This, Rawls reasons, is because despite the sophistication of the various theories of Utilitarianism presented by philosophers like Bentham and Mill, it failed to work out a “systematic moral conception” leaving a difference between the principles of Utility and the moral sentiments of the people (ibid). The alternative system of justice provided by Rawls is an attempt to address this difference with rationality. The function of rationality here is to produce a theory that can consistently provide an explanation for human behaviour and motivation. This alternative system of justice is described as ‘justice as fairness’.

Read More
1161 Words | 5 Pages

Safety of our citizens is of utmost importance in creating a robust society. Building sustainable communities that are inclusive, secure and sensitive to needs of the citizens will continue to be of national priority. However, over the years, crime has stymied this endeavour. There must be a commitment to ensuring safety, security and justice for all citizens, which are seen as moral rights and intrinsic to development. Good policing, targeted social interventions and an efficient judicial system are needed to help our nation thrive.

Read More

More about Theory Of Justice Analysis

Related Topics

Open Document