Philosophy 2: Society and Values

Los Angeles Pierce College

Department of History, Philosophy, & Sociology

Lecture Notes for Rawls' Justice as Fairness

What is justice?  What are its parts? 

The Butler: "A practice is just if it is in accordance with the principles which all who participate in it might reasonably be expected to propose or to acknowledge before one another when they are similarly circumstanced and required to make a firm commitment in advance without knowledge of what will be their peculiar condition, and thus when it meets standards which the parties could accept as fair should occasion arise for them to debate its merits." 

Fairness   

Rawls: fairness is the fundamental concept in justice

Tolerable Inequalities       

The sense of equality in the concept of justice can tolerate some forms of inequality.

Other notions might motivate us to not tolerate such forms of inequity

First Principle   

"[E]ach person participating in a practice, or affected by it, has an equal right to the most extensive liberty compatible with a like liberty for all."

If you are in, or affected by, a practice, you have the right to the same liberties as others have.  

Departures from Initial Equality of Liberties      

Departures from "initial position of equal liberty" must be justified.

The justification for such departures must be made by those who seek departure.

Like for Like     

Similar cases call for similar treatments, so the generality of rules is important. 

Second Principle       

"[I]nequalities are arbitrary unless it is reasonable to expect that they will work out for everyone's advantage, and provided the positions and offices to which they attach, or from which they may be gained, are open to all."

"The second principle defines what sorts of inequalities are permissible; it specifies how the presumption laid down by the first principle may be put aside"

Inequalities of What? / Benefits & Burdens       

Inequalities of "benefits and burdens"

"[S]uch as prestige and wealth, or liability to taxation and compulsory services"

The Condition of Just Inequality        

"the second principle holds that an inequality is allowed only if there is reason to believe that the practice with the inequality, or resulting in it, will work for the advantage of every party engaging in it."

Inequalities benefitting all engaged are permissible.

All Must Benefit

Only those inequalities benefitting all engaged are permissible.

Across the spectrum of those who participate in a practice, all must find a change in equality preferable to its absence.

Incentives        

Inequalities as incentives

Its seemingly human nature anyhow

Tax-Dodger

E.G.   "[O]ne might say of the tax-dodger that he violates the duty of fair play: he accepts the benefits of government but will not do his part in releasing resources to it; and members of labor unions often say that fellow workers who refuse to join are being unfair: they refer to them as 'free riders,' as persons who enjoy what are the supposed benefits of unionism, higher wages, shorter hours, job security, and the like, but who refuse to share in its burdens in the form of paying dues, and so on." 

Recognizing Another         

"acknowledging the duty of fair play is a necessary part of the criterion for recognizing another as a person with similar interests and feelings as oneself"

Empathy

"The recognition of one another as persons with similar interests and capacities engaged in a common practice must, failing a special explanation, show itself in the acceptance of the principles of justice and the acknowledgment of the duty of fair play." 

Crystallization  

"A practice is just if it is in accordance with the principles which all who participate in it might reasonably be expected to propose or to acknowledge before one another when they are similarly circumstanced and required to make a firm commitment in advance without knowledge of what will be their peculiar condition, and thus when it meets standards which the parties could accept as fair should occasion arise for them to debate its merits."