Rawlsian Contract Approach

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Rawlsian Contract Approach

• Attempts to reconcile utilitarianism and
  intuitionism.
• Theory of distributive justice account of how
  rights, duties, goods etc. should be distributed
  by a society.

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Intuitionism

• Consists of a number of first principles that may
  conflict with one another and that give contrary
  directives in particular types of cases.
• Does not include an explicit method, not priority
  rules for weighing one principle against another.
• Examples equality, autonomy, benevolence,
  non-malfeasance, efficiency.

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Utilitarianism

• Utilitarianism(greatest overall good) suffers
  because we believe that there are limits on the
  way individuals can be legitimately sacrificed
  for the benefit of others.

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Rawlss General Conception of Justice

• All social primary goodsliberty and
  opportunity, income and wealth, and the bases of
  self-respectare to be distributed equally unless
  an unequal distribution of any or all of these
  goods is to the advantage of the least favored
  (TOJ 303)

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Details of the General Conception

• Justice equal share owed to all with the
  provisowe only remove those inequalities that
  disadvantage someone.
• Inequalities that benefit everyone are allowed
  provided they improve my initially equal share
  but are not allowed if they invade my fair share.
• This is not a full theory of justice because we
  still need a priority principle.

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Special Conception of Justice

• First Principle Each person is to have an equal
  right to the most extensive total system of
  equal basic liberties compatible with a similar
  system of liberty for all.
• Second Principle Social and economic
  inequalities are to be arranged so that they are
  both,
• To the greatest benefit of the least advantaged.
• Attached to offices and positions open to all
  under conditions of fair equality of opportunity.

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Special Conception of Justice (Cont.)

• First Priority Rule (The Priority of Liberty)
  the principles of justice are to be ranked in
  lexical order and therefore liberty can be
  restricted only for the sake of liberty.
• Second Priority Rule (The Priority of Justice
  Over Efficiency and Welfare) the second
  principle of justice is lexically prior to the
  principle of efficiency and to that of maximizing
  the sum of advantages and fair opportunity is
  prior to the difference principle.

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Equality of Opportunity

• Our commonly held view is that inequalities are
  justified if there was a fair equality of
  opportunity i.e., if no one was disadvantaged by
  their race, sex, or social status.
• Example 100,000 salary vs. national average of
  20,000 such unequal incomes are often
  considered just regardless of whether or not the
  less well off benefit from that inequality.

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Why do we believe the ideology of equal
opportunity is fair?

• We believe peoples fate should be tied directly
  to their choices and effort.
• Outcomes are therefore deserved.

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Social and Natural Inequalities

• It is true that undeserved social inequalities
  are not fair, and there is another type of
  inequality, namely, undeserved natural
  inequalities.
• Same unjust effects derive from natural
  inequalities as they do with social inequalities.
• Natural inequalities are arbitrary from a moral
  point of view.

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Social Contract Argument

• Social contract argument is an argument about
  what sort of political morality people would
  choose were they setting up society from an
  original position.
• The contract that Rawls is proposing is a device
  for teasing out the moral implications of certain
  moral premises concerning peoples moral
  equalityModel of Moral Equality.

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Original Position State of perfect equality

• Corrects on the natural inequalities between
  individuals by placing a veil of ignorance over
  the contractors in the original position.
• Class position/Social status
• Natural assets Intelligence Strength
• Conception of the good
• Psychological propensities

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Original Position constitutes an intuitive test
of fairness.

• Reasonable constraints on arguments for
  principles of justice.
• Cannot tailor principles to ones biases.
• What principles would be chosen? While we do not
  know what position we will occupy or what goals
  we will have, there are things we will want or
  need for a good life.

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O.P. and Primary Goods

• Social Primary Goods goods that are directly
  distributed by social institutions like income,
  wealth, opportunities and powers, rights,
  liberties.
• Natural Primary Goods goods like health,
  intelligence, vigor, imagination and natural
  talents that are affected by institutions but are
  not directly distributed by them.

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Outcome of the Original Position

• Result of the O.P. is benevolence.
• What counts as a rational distribution Maximin
  Strategy maximize what you would get if you
  wound up in the minimum or worst off position in
  society.