POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY 8
RAWLS
- A Theory of Justice: justice and liberalism grounded in the idea of a good life
- early Rawls thinks you need to abandon Catholicism, Marxism, etc. to be a liberal
- later he thinks you can participate in liberal society even with these views
- inclusive, not exclusive
- his project is a nation-state one, later he realizes individual national projects need to be reconciled
- Rawls cannot think of multiculturalism, he is a state monist to an extent
VAN PRIJS’ critique via Belgium
Justice as fairness, domestic justice
- justice is more important than efficiency, etc.
- BASIC STRUCTURE: the way a nation structures its systems
- basic structure needs to be ordered based on a theory of justice
- leaving society is not an option, not a solution
He gives ideal principles, even though society is not ideal. They’re aspirations, common goals.
Procedural justice results from just processes
Principles:
- a just society distributes primary social goods (what everyone is assumed to want)
- only goods are the social ones, as connected on the basic structure
- each person is entitled to a certain, universal scheme of liberties
- liberties: thought, association, voting, party-forming, property, movement, occupation, equal and fair rule of law governs them all
- can be limited only to protect other liberties (hate speech, etc.)
What makes a liberty basic is that its the condition for:
1. The capacity to be reasonable (justice, fairness, cooperation)
2. The capacity to be rational (instrumental rationality)
- all of this is for conceiving the good
FEO: Fair Equality of Opportunity
- people with the same natural talents should have equal social capacities for development
- open position, no legal restrictions to education, jobs
- equality of opportunity must correct for social disadvantage
DP: Difference Principle
- helping the least-advantaged is the duty of justice
- not charity but justice, the worst-off are the best treated
- the work of institutions, not individuals
- DP works beyond the market, ensuring all is well even if the market is unfair
- least advantaged = economically least advantaged
For fair terms of social cooperation
- wealthy people are okay, as long as their wealth benefits the poor