Philosophy 2: Society and Values

Pierce College

Department of History, Philosophy, & Sociology

Group Exercise for Rawls' Difference Principle

(Notes on the importance of group exercises.)

In this activity, each group will work on a situation having to do with justifiable inequality from Rawls.

Individually, respond to the following scenario: Imagine you have the power to give one person (not you) one super special power. You can give this special power to one person on the condition that the person in question must benefit everyone, including the person who would get that special power. What significant problems (no more than two) would emerge in your decision-making process? Would those problems be different if the condition was not that the person in question must not cause harm to everyone else who does not have that power?

In groups:

1) Discuss the fruits of your individual efforts.

2) Present your findings to class.