General Introduction

• John Rawls (1921-2002) was a contemporary American philosopher who revived interest in political philosophy.

• He is regarded as the first original theorist of justice since Plato and Aristotle.

• Rawls published A Theory of Justice (1971), inspiring many scholars to write on justice based on his ideas.

• He developed his theory within the liberal tradition, following the social contract methodology, especially John Locke’s version.

• His theory of justice as fairness envisions a society of free citizens with equal basic rights, equal opportunities, and cooperation for a common goal.

• His theory of political liberalism focuses on the legitimate use of political power in a democracy.

• Rawls shows that free institutions can accommodate diverse worldviews yet maintain enduring unity.

• His work on the law of peoples extends principles of justice to the global sphere to promote global justice.

• Rawls was the son of a prominent lawyer and studied at Princeton and Oxford.

• He was a Harvard faculty member for over three decades.

• Major works include A Theory of Justice (1971), Political Liberalism (1993), The Law of Peoples (1999), and Justice as Fairness (2001).

Social Contract

The idea of the social contract refers to an agreement among men whereby they relinquish the hypothetical ‘state of nature’ and enter into civil society. Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), John Locke (1632-1704), English philosophers, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-78), French philosopher, are regarded the chief exponents of the theory of the social contract. They have given different accounts of the state of nature, the terms of the contract, and the nature of sovereignty which comes into existence in consequence of the social contract.

Rawls’s Theory of Justice

• In A Theory of Justice (1971), John Rawls asserts that a good society is characterized by several virtues.

• Justice is the first virtue of a good society.

• Justice is a necessary but not sufficient condition for a good society.

• Opponents who argue that justice should not hinder social advancement and progress risk causing moral degradation in society.

• In a just society, justice forms the foundation of social structure.

• All political and legislative decisions must be designed to fulfil the requirements of justice.

The Problem of Justice

• According to Rawls, the problem of justice is ensuring a just distribution of ‘primary goods’ which include rights and liberties, powers and opportunities, income and wealth, means of self-respect, and more.

• Rawls described his theory as a theory of pure procedural justice, meaning that once certain principles of justice are unanimously accepted, the resulting distribution will necessarily be just.

• He severely criticized allocation theories that ignore the moral worth of the individual to achieve predetermined goals.

• Rawls particularly attacked utilitarianism because it may justify extreme hardship to some individuals for the ‘greatest happiness of the greatest number’.

• Example: A situation where maximum happiness for most is achieved by enslavement of a minority is morally unacceptable.

• Rawls argued that suffering of the distressed cannot be compensated by the joy of the prosperous.

• Within utilitarianism, J.S. Mill differed from Jeremy Bentham on two points:

  • (a) Mill recognized qualitative differences between pleasures, highlighting individual preferences beyond mere quantity.

  • (b) Mill emphasized the importance of liberty of thought and expression, recognizing each individual’s opinion as valuable.

• Mill sought to discover the moral worth of the individual behind the utilitarian formula of ‘greatest happiness of the greatest number’.

• Rawls’s attack on utilitarianism aimed to restore the moral worth of the individual in the allocation of social-economic advantages.

• Rawls’s theory of justice can be seen as the logical conclusion of Mill’s departure from crude utilitarianism.