Rawls’s Contractarian Ethical Theory



Rawls’s Contractarian Ethical Theory

Rawls’s book: A Theory of Justice

Rawls’s basic assumptions:

• Moral principles are principles governing interactions among the members of a “well-ordered society.”

• A well-ordered society is a society

o that seeks to advance the good of its members

o whose basic institutions are regulated by a “public conception of justice”

o whose members accept the same principles of justice

o that is stable

• Moral principles are those that would be negotiated by the members of a well-ordered society if those members were negotiating in an “original position.”

The Original Position

• The negotiators are rational, self-interested individuals.

• Each negotiator makes his/her choices behind a “veil of ignorance.”

o No one knows his/her social status.

o No one knows his/her natural abilities—intelligence, strength, etc.

o No one knows his/her “conception of the good”—i.e., his/her life goals, psychological/personality characteristics, etc.

o No one knows the economic or political state of the society—i.e., how advanced it is technologically, culturally, etc.

o No one knows which generation he/she belongs to—present or future.

According to Rawls, the principles that would emerge from the negotiators would include the following:

1. Each person would have an equal right to the most extensive basic liberty compatible with a similar liberty for others.

2. Maximin principle: Economic and social inequalities are permissible if they are (a) likely to be to everyone’s advantage, and (b) “attached to positions and offices open to all.”

According to Rawls,

• The principles of distribution of benefits and burdens that would emerge from the negotiations in the original position would determine the principles of distributive justice (pure procedural justice).

• The principles of conduct that would emerge from the negotiations in the original position would determine the principles of right and wrong.

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