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- Have you ever contemplated
how to create a fair society?
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When we do this, we are
forming a Theory of Justice.
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John Rawls book titled A Theory
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of Justice puts forth a Fair Method
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of Producing distributive
shares and Outcomes.
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The moral force behind
the Principles in a Theory
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of Justice are based on
a hypothetical contract.
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By emphasizing contracts over
consequences, the theory tries
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to avoid the moral dilemma
of treating moral agents
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as a means to an end.
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Instead of using the model
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of an actual contract like the
United States Constitution,
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the theory uses the concept
of a hypothetical contract,
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which is more resistant to
the exploitation of knowledge
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and bargaining power.
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The Theory of Justice asks us
to put ourselves behind a veil
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of ignorance as a thought experiment.
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Behind the veil, we eliminate
our personal features
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and imagine ourselves
in a conscious state.
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Before we were born, this state known
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as the original position
tries to bring us closer
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to a position of equality.
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In this position, we should
ask ourselves, what sort
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of society would I want to be born into?
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This draws on a sort of joint rationality
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and helps us to find common ground.
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The third component of the
theory of justice can be thought
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of as speculation about
what would be chosen
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by rational actors.
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In the original position.
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John Rawles believes in the
original position the difference
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principle, a principle in which
inequality is allowed only
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when it benefits the least
fortunate would be chosen.
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He also believes that
it is not moral to base.
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Distributive shares on arbitrary factors
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and uses this principle to
handle various objections
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to the difference principle.
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A system based solely on
merit, for example, while using
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what seems to be a non arbitrary system
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of distributed shares based on effort
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or contribution, still
succumbs to the arbitrariness
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of the genetic lottery of talents
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and the societal lottery
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of those talents being currently valued.
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Effort itself is also affected
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by factors like the arbitrariness
of being the firstborn.
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The natural distribution
says raws is neither just
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nor unjust, nor is it unjust
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that persons are born into society at some
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particular position.
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These are simply natural facts.
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What is just and unjust is
the way that institutions deal
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with these facts.
