Page 1 :
John Rawls Views on the Theory of Justice, , Introductory:, , John Rawls is a top political scientist and academician of United States. He was born in 1921 and, passed away in 2002. His most famous work is A Theory of Justice first published in 1970 and its, revised edition was published in 1990. In the revised edition, Rawls claims, some important, sections and views have been revised. Some political scientists claim that it is the most important, work in the English speaking world after the Second World War. Rawls championed the cause of, , liberalism and challenged the conventional thought of equality and attainment of justice., , In 1993 his another important work— Political Liberalism was published. Mainly these two works, constituted his thought system which is modern liberalism. Even the social democrats and, opponents of liberalism could not keep themselves away from the tremendous influence Rawls, , created in the academic circle., , It is interesting to note that during the heyday of Soviet communism and Cold War Rawls offered, an alternative scheme of political liberalism which was based on minimal state concept. He did, not regard inequality as basis of society and enemy of social progress. Equality cannot be accepted, , as an important highway leading to the big capital of justice., , Equality, inequality and other related ideas are to be judged in the background of social justice, and social progress. He propounded his theory keeping the idea in mind that American capitalist, , system cannot be thoroughly revised or rejected. It has revised itself frequently., , Definition of Justice:, , Rawls says that the conception of justice is an inherent nature of our social as well as practical, , life. Barker has expressed a similar idea. However, in the opinion of Raws “Justice in the first
Page 2 :
virtue of social intuitions as truth is of system of thought”. Justice is related to the social, , institutions which guide and mould the actions and ideas of social beings., , We cannot imagine of a well ordered society whose core concept is not justice. Justice binds all, men and institutions of society. The joining capacity and feature of justice has been forcefully, , advocated by Barker and Rawls shares the views of Barker., , John Rawls has viewed justice in the background of society and for this reason he says that the, main concern of the subject matter of justice is social structure which is the core of the society., That is justice deals with the basic social structure. The social institutions are very important in, the sense that they take the responsibility of distributing the fundamental rights and duties, , efficiently., , It is also the important task of the social institutions to allocate judiciously the privileges and, advantages for the people of society. Constitution, social, political and economic arrangements, are included into these social institutions. Thus justice may conveniently be regarded as a social, principle which determines the ways and procedure of distributing the rights and duties for the, members of society. He further calls justice a social scheme on the basis of which rights, duties,, , opportunities and condition are allotted. Thus justice is both a principle and a scheme., , In the opinion of Barker justice is a social reality and is originates from social thought. But social, thought does not arise or develop in a single day or at a particular point of time. Different views, , and cross currents of opinion help the formation of social thought and it relates to the conception, , of justice,, , So we can say after Rawls that “various conceptions of justice are the outgrowth of different, , notions of society against the background of opposing views of the natural necessities and
Page 3 :
opportunities of human life”. In any liberal society opposing views must exist side by side and, , out of them a common opinion will one day emerge which will give rise to justice., , So justice may duly be regarded as a “proper balance between competing claims (emphasis, added)”. This point of Rawls reminds us of Rousseau’s general will which is the outcome of, , deliberations held at open general meeting and participated by all citizens., , Rawls’ theory of justice consists of “certain distributive principles for the basic structure of, society”, In the light of this analysis John Rawls defines justice in the following words. “The, concept of justice I take to be defined by the role of its principles in assuming rights and duties in, defining the appropriate division of social advantages. A conception of justice is an interpretation, of this role”. Justice is, thus, an interpretation of principles that are suggested for the distribution, , of rights and duties and at the same time division of social advantages among all the members of, , body politic., , Justice as Fairness:, , The main theme of Rawls’ theory of justice is it is interpreted as fairness. The dictionary meaning, of fairmess is appropriateness or just: In Rawls’ conception that arrangement can be called just or, appropriate which does not create any scope of partiality or inappropriate. The principles for the, , distribution of rights, duties and advantages will be applied in such manner as will give no, , controversy., , Rawls explains the term fairness in the following way:, “I shall try to use this principle to account for all requirements that are obligations as distinct from, natural duties. This principle holds that a person is required to do his part as defined by the rules, , of an institution when two conditions are met, first the institution is just (or fair) that is it satisfies
Page 4 :
the two principles of justice and second, one has voluntarily accepted the benefits of the, , arrangement”., , From the above definition of fairness we can form certain features some of which are the, following:, (1) According to John Rawls faimess denotes obligations. Obligation means an act which a person, , morally or legally is bound to do. Obligations are different from natural duties., , (2) When a person is legally or morally bound to do an act or perform a duty his liberty will be, , restricted., , (3) Fairness also implies that the members of the society are engaged in advantageous cooperative, venture. Here two things are important. Individuals cooperate with each other. This cooperation, places all the individuals participating in the act creates an atmosphere of mutual advantages for, , them all. This means that cooperation will create no disadvantage to anybody., , (4) Rawls further says that the institutions must be fair or just. They must keep themselves above, parochial interests. In many societies there are such institutions which have been created to serve, , group’s interests and such institutions cannot serve the interests of justice., , (5) General public will accept the arrangements of the institutions ungrudgingly. They will have, , no reservations or objections., , (6) While discussing the nature of obligation one point is required to be mentioned here., Obligations give rise to the performance of duties which are not moral duties. The institutional or, , constitutional obligations impose duties upon individuals., , The constitutional or institutional obligations induce a man to perform some duties which ensure, , the realisation of justice. The performance of institutional duties enables an individual to manage
Page 5 :
a democratic society and furtherance of general welfare. We, therefore, conclude that the, obligations with a strong emphasis on its nature, institutional arrangement and to actively, cooperate with the duties made by the institution or any other official declaration are included into, , the fairness principle., , When the condition of fairness is fully satisfied the concept of justice will not remain far behind., We thus see that fairness, defined by Rawls, in his own way, practically constitutes the core of the, theory of justice. But in close analysis it will be found that it is nearer to the traditional idea of, , justice which states that justice means to give everyone his due share., , Contract Theory and Justice:, , We have just now elaborated Rawls’ view of justice as fairness. We now tur our attention to the, origin of justice as faimess. After good deal of labour Rawls concludes that justice as fairness can, aptly be traced to the social contract theory explained by Locke, Rousseau and Kant. He states, that the contract theory has several facets such as formation of civil society set up a government., But Rawls is not concerned with all these facets. His chief aim is how the original agreement, , helped the establishment of justice in society., , The rational and free individuals met together and settled among themselves the principles, of original contract:, , (1) One such principle is they would cooperate among themselves to further their interests., (2) The society shall be established on the principle of equality., , (3) Subsequently other terms of agreement may be finalised but these two terms—Cooperation, , and equality shall guide and control these terms.
