Throughout history and in modern society‚ the relationship between law and justice has been examined and debated resulting in the creation of various theories attempting to outline systems of a just society. Some of these theories revolve around a central notion of a ‘social contract’ in which society is formed through a theoretical agreement between a group of people about their moral and political obligations. This concept has been used by theorists such as Mill and Rousseau‚ to explain why the
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Rawls’ Maximin Principle: Is It Really The Most Rational Solution? Political philosophy aims to reflect the normative and conceptual dimensions of political life. American philosopher John Rawls is widely recognized as one of the leading political philosophers of the twentieth century. His A Theory of Justice (1971) is one of the primary texts in political philosophy and proposes two principles of justice. The first‚ the liberty principle‚ defines basic liberties and the second‚ the difference
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Social justice is what people in society owe to one another in a matter of rights. It is whether people have rights and entitlements to certain kinds of political and social arrangements‚ and as a result‚ to certain social outcomes. Rawls states that social justice is a type of fairness‚ where the social cooperation appropriately distributes the burdens and benefits of society (1999: 4). Rawls aims to do this using the theoretical device of the Original Position. The intention of the thought experiment
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The concept of justice has been the focus of normative political theory over the past 50 years‚ and John Rawls’ A Theory of Justice (1971) is widely seen as the most important attempt during that period to articulate a set of institutions and distributional outcomes that rational individuals would see as legitimate. Rawls’ seminal work has spawned a veritable critical industry since its publication (Miller‚ 1999). His elaboration of his project and restatement of his theory of “justice as fairness”
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Rawls Theory of Justice A contemporary philosopher‚ John Rawls (1921-2002)‚ is noted for his contributions to political and moral philosophy. In particular‚ Rawls ’ discussion about justice introduced five important concepts into discourse‚ including: the two principles of justice‚ the “original position” and “veil of ignorance”. Rawls most famous work is‚ A Theory of Justice (1971) gives an introduction to this body of thought and he emphasises the importance justice has on governing and organising
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The conventional accounts of Justice normally begin by stating a fundamental rule of Aristotle – Justice is to treat equals equally and unequals unequally‚ and that unequal treatment should be in proportion to the inequality. In everyday life though‚ justice is seen as an attribute of law‚ while all laws are not necessarily just. Many great socio- political movements of the world have focused from time to time on unjust laws eg Apartheid laws in South Africa and Caste laws in India. Impartiality
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Rawls’ Difference Principle Rawls believed in the ideal of perfect equality. This meant‚ to him‚ that everyone should have equal opportunity and receive the same treatment. To Rawls‚ there was only one reason why anyone should be treated differently to any other person – to help the worst off members of society. He called this reason the difference principle‚ and in conjunction with his “Justice as Fairness” ideal it formed the basis of his claims about distributive justice. Rawls’ natural
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Peter Justice: Political Not Natural Abstract: Ken Binmore casts his naturalist theory of justice in opposition to theories of justice that claim authority on the grounds of some religious or moral doctrine. He thereby overlooks the possibility of a political conception of justice—a theory of justice based on the premise that there is an irreducible pluralism of metaphysical‚ epistemological‚ and moral doctrines. In my brief comment I shall argue that the naturalist theory of justice advocated
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Distributive Justice Part I – Introduction John Rawls’ Theory of Justice is based on the idea of distributive justice‚ that is‚ how justice should be distributed to each individual within a society. Rawls’ theory contrasts with the theory of utilitarianism‚ because it values the welfare of each individual over the ‘greater good’‚ and does not believe that one person should sacrifice their own needs or desires in order to benefit a larger number of people. This has led Rawls to develop the idea
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Chapter I RAWLS THEORY OF JUSTICE 1.1) Introduction John Rawls‚ a modern and one of the most influential philosophers‚ who held the James Bryant Conant University Professorship at Harvard University and Fulbright Fellowship at Christ Church‚ Oxford‚ published several books and many articles. He wrote a series of highly influential articles in the 1950s and ’60s that helped refocus on morals and political philosophy on substantive problems. He is widely regarded as one of the most important political
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