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Thomas Hobbes, By John Locke, And Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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Recommended: Rawls and the standard of justice

Benjamin Kielhold
Phil-220
Prompt 3 John Rawls was a twentieth century philosopher who authored a thought provoking book known as, A Theory of Justice. He was heavily influenced by past philosopher’s such as: Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, for motivation and ideas for his beliefs while modeling this theory. The basis of his theory is the concept of equality and freedom directly clashing. Rawls argues strongly of two general principles for his theory of justice that help structure the world that we live in. He uses these principles coupled with a veil of ignorance to imagine how the rules of society should be structured in a fair and non-biased manner. Both principles supplement Rawl’s justice theory but there are flaws to them and in the world we live in today there can be viewed many issues on unequal opportunity. Rawls was dissatisfied with …show more content…

The veil of ignorance can be explained by not having any biases while making decisions that would allow for extensive freedom and fair equality of opportunity. The first principle is the principle of equal liberty. This principle states that each person has an equal right to the most extensive liberties compatible with similar liberties for all (Rawls). The second principle is the difference principle. This principle states that social and economic inequalities should be arranged that they are both to the greatest benefit of the least advantaged persons and attached to offices and positions open to all under conditions of equality and opportunity (Rawls). Looking at Rawl’s principles more in depth, he is discussing an egalitarian conception of justice. One that would allow a state in which two things that are unequal the conditions of equality of opportunity especially those born to lower class systems and into less favorable social

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Rawls states that equality of opportunity represents, “… the background institutions of social and economic justice,” that help those who are most disadvantaged (Rawls 288). Through his own story, Moore displays how education allows those who come from essentially nothing can achieve success. It gives, “… a reason to believe that a story of struggle apathy, and pain… can still have a happy ending,” (Moore 183). Rawls also believes in the, “… equal opportunities of education for all regardless of family income” (Rawls 286). Both see education not only as providing knowledge for all people, but also resources and role models, as the most direct and effective method for creating greater social equality within a

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I will talk about John Rawls’ philosophy and two major critiques made to his work by G.A. Cohen John Rawls was born in Baltimore in 1921. He was always concerned about poverty in the United States and wanted to change the society he lived in. He wrote his most famous book A Theory of Justice in 1971. This book is considered the most important book in American philosophy after the World War II. John Rawls philosophy is based on his vision of justice.

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Rawls states in the article “the main idea is that society is rightly ordered, and therefor just, when its major institutions are arranged so as to achieve the greatest net balance of satisfaction summed over all the individuals belonging to

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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.

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Political theorists, whether they are realists, or liberalists, over the centuries, have come into conflict over what they believe to be the utmost important task of the state. Hobbes believes the most important task of the state is to ensure law and order, rooting his argument in the idea of a sovereign ruler. On the other hand, Rawls, a modern theorist, firmly believes that a state should focus on realising justice within their society. While a utopian society cannot be achieved by either of these theories, I will highlight why Rawls was right in his assumption that the main focus of a state should be to ensure justice for all within their nation, through analysing and comparing the conflicting arguments of Hobbes and Rawls.

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Shelby fails in his attempt to use Rawls’ apparatus for achieving corrective racial justice. Although Rawls “does not directly address matters of compensatory justice” (“Race and Social Justice” 1711), Shelby thinks his theory established in A Theory of Justice can be used to solve this problem. Shelby uses FEO, a principle in Rawls’ ideal apparatus, to solve racial justice, which is a matter of non-ideal theory. To show why Shelby’s interpretation and application of Rawls’ theory is flawed, I will use three criticisms delineated by Charles Mill in “Retrieving Rawls for Racial Justice?:

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Assignment 3 - Rawls and Dewey John Rawls' theory of justice is considered one of the most important ideas of the 20th century. John Dewey's idea of the role of the state in society is similar but different. Their ideas contrast about the nature of the good, justice society. Rawls believed in two principles of justice. Dewey talks about the public the state and how human desire influences the facts and theories of political philosophy.

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The age of enlightenment was a philosophical peak in history that set a course for the rest of time. Many different ideas were brought about that shaped the way we live to this day, especially here in the states. Two philosophers in particular affected the United States of America; Thomas Hobbes and Tom Locke. Both of these philosophers pasts formed their philosophy and the ideas they had, which affected the government of their time, and our government today. Hobbes and Locke had very different upbringings and backgrounds, which led them to having very different points of view on life.

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Under these set of laws Rawls believes people behind the veil of ignorance have had to remove constraints in order to create the rules to give people freedom. This indicates a certain sense of negative liberty is being thought about when

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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

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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.

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I will be outlining three ‘challenges from the right’ aimed at Rawls’ theory of justice. I am of the opinion that all three of these challenges succeed. John Rawls was an influential political philosopher of late twentieth century, this was largely due to his work, ‘A Theory of Justice’ in 1971. He answers a very old question: what is justice? He saw justice as a virtue of the state.

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J RAWLS, The Laws of Peoples-with the Idea of Public Reason Revisited, Harvard University Press: USA, 1999. John Rawls was an influential political philosopher and his publications are widely read. One of which is the Law of Peoples published in 1993 which is the subject of my study. In the Law of Peoples Rawls concerns of the general principles whereby one can uphold and be accept by the liberal people as well as the non-liberal society. “This principle is a standard for which can be useful in regulating the behavior of the citizens towards one and other.”

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“This is a shared reason by different individuals and citizens which place constraint on the condition of acceptability of the argument of the principles, institutions and legislations.” “Rawls supports the overlapping consensus of comprehensive doctrine as an acceptable political conception of Justice.” This is meant that the doctrines, both the religious and non-religious supports a political conception of justice, affirming equal rights and liberties foe all citizens including the religious freedom and the freedom of conscience. Rawls uses the concept of the Original Position with the veil of Ignorance. It’s a way of modeling liberal democratic tradition which could be regarded as a condition for selecting the principles that will govern the structure of the states.

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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.

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