INTRODUCTION

• John Bordley Rawls was an American moral, legal, and political philosopher in the modern liberal tradition.
• He is considered one of the most influential political philosophers of the 20th century.
• In 1990, Will Kymlicka noted that the rebirth of normative political philosophy began with the publication of Rawls’s A Theory of Justice in 1971.
• Rawls’s theory of justice as fairness advocates for equal basic liberties, equality of opportunity, and maximizing the benefit to the least advantaged members of society in the presence of inequalities.
• Rawls uses the original position thought experiment where individuals select the kind of society they would choose to live in without knowing their personal social position.
• In his later work, Political Liberalism (1993), Rawls addressed the legitimacy of political power amidst reasonable disagreement about the nature of the good life.
• In 1999, Rawls received the Schock Prize for Logic and Philosophy and the National Humanities Medal.
• The National Humanities Medal was presented by President Bill Clinton in recognition of Rawls’s argument that a society where the most fortunate help the least fortunate is both moral and logical.
• Rawls is frequently cited by the courts of law in the United States and Canada.
• He is also referred to by practicing politicians in the United States and the United Kingdom.
• In a 2008 survey of political theorists, Rawls was voted first among scholars who had the greatest impact on political theory in the past 20 years.

BACKGROUND

• A Theory of Justice is a significant work in political and moral philosophy, widely regarded as a crucial text in modern philosophy.
• Political philosophers must either work within Rawls’ theory or provide explanations for rejecting it (Nozick, 1974).
• Rawls’ theory has both simplicity and complexity, likened to the grandeur of a Gothic Cathedral (Chapman, 1975).
• Rawls’ work is considered a comprehensive effort to justify a socialist ethic (Bell, 1973).
• His A Theory of Justice (1971) exemplifies the contractual approach to liberal justice.
• The theory is a powerful, systematic defense of a new form of egalitarianism that balances individual liberty.
• Hampshire (1972) praised it as the most substantive contribution to post-Second World War political philosophy.
• Rawls’ work has been translated into many languages, indicating its wide influence.
• The theory has had immense impact on contemporary political philosophy, with a “Rawls industry” of commentaries (Ryan, 1985).
• Rawls first outlined his ideas in Justice as Fairness (1957) and further developed them in Political Liberalism (1993) and The Law of Peoples (1999).
• The evolution of Rawls’ theory involved subtle alterations, responding to critiques but maintaining core doctrines (Barry, 1973).
• Rawls’ theory coincided with civil rights movements, anti-Vietnam war protests, and issues of social justice in the 1960s-70s.
• Rawls’ justice principles reflect common sense and moral convictions, aiming for a democratic society based on justice as the “first virtue.”
• Rawls considered justice as central to social institutions, with efficiency and stability being important but secondary (Rawls, 1972).
• Initially applied to practices, Rawls later focused on the basic structure of the well-ordered society.
• Rawls’ conception of justice was pure procedural, differing from perfect and imperfect procedural justice.
• In a pure procedural approach, fair procedures lead to fair outcomes, regardless of the result.
• Justice is about the rules governing a social practice, not about evaluating individual situations through criteria like need or desert.
• Rawls argued that rational agents, under certain conditions, would choose principles of justice consistent with distributive justice and moral acceptability.
• Barry (1995) viewed Rawls’ theory as a significant contribution to social justice due to its focus on rational justification for deviations from equality.
• Rawls favored equality and argued against merit or desert in determining justice outcomes.
• He rejected merit and desert because skills, talents, and endowments are socially constructed products.
• Rawls did not seek to equalize human beings or disregard individual talents but emphasized the moral priority of meeting the fundamental needs of all, especially the least advantaged.
• In his view, inherited advantages and genetic traits should serve society, particularly those in need.

• A Theory of Justice (1971) aimed to resolve the competing claims of freedom and equality by integrating them into a seamless unity called justice as fairness.

• Rawls intended to show that the conflict between freedom and equality is illusory.

• The theory includes a thought experiment called the “original position”, which helps determine the correct standpoint for deliberating about justice.

• In the original position, individuals deliberate behind a veil of ignorance, unaware of their gender, race, age, intelligence, wealth, skills, education, or religion.

• The individuals only know they possess the basic capacities to participate in a system of mutual cooperation and to form, pursue, and revise a conception of the good.

• The individuals also understand they have the capacity to develop a sense of justice and a desire to abide by it.

• The goal is to design a social structure that maximizes the advantage of each individual, avoiding unjust proposals.

• Proposals like discrimination against black people or women will not be made, as it would be irrational to propose them when one does not know their own status.

• The difference principle posits that in ignorance of one’s status, one would strive to improve the position of the worst off, as one might find themselves in that position.

• Rawls’s original position is influenced by social contract thinkers like Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau, who each designed their own “initial situation.”

• Rawls’s experience in post-war Japan and the US Army’s task of redesigning social and political authorities influenced his original position.

• In social justice processes, people decide which features of others to consider or ignore, and Rawls aims to create a thought experiment that completes this process, illuminating the correct moral standpoint.

• Rawls’s method of developing his theory is called “reflective equilibrium”, where one adjusts their general principles and judgments on particular cases to bring them into alignment.