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1-Page Summary of A Theory Of Justice

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John Rawls published A Theory of Justice in 1971 and argued for his theory of justice as fairness, which commands that everyone has the same rights.

Equality of opportunity and helping the least advantaged in society are key to improving our world.

To do this, Rawls uses a thought experiment called the original position. In this hypothetical situation, people who are interested in society but not their place in it use rational thinking to come up with a contract for how they want society to be governed. This leads them down a philosophical journey that addresses distributive justice from a Kantian perspective and offers an alternative to utilitarian doctrines.

Rawls uses the original position to reason his two principles of justice. The first principle states that everyone has a right to the same liberties, and the second one is that social and economic inequalities must be arranged so they are both: ·       fair (everyone gets their fair share)

·       that everyone has a fair chance at getting the job they want, regardless of their background or abilities. ·       That people should be rewarded based on how much money they bring in for the company and not by how long they’ve been with it.

Rawls’s two principles of justice are given priority because the first principle, requiring equal liberty, is given priority to the second principle. Within the second principle, equal opportunity is given priority to the difference principle. Rawls develops this theory further by including: a four-stage sequence for developing principles and applying rules

The passage addresses the issue of intergenerational justice, explains how to include natural duties and obligations within a conception of justice, justifies civil disobedience and conscientious refusal as essential to any conception of justice, and argues that these are what make it possible for people to live justly.

·       addresses the good, right, self-respect, excellences (such as courage), shame and envy.

The objective of this essay is to explain John Rawls’ theory of justice as fairness. This will be done by comparing it with utilitarianism.

Rawls’ theory of justice as fairness is presented in three parts, which support each other to form one unified theory. Part 1 establishes the theoretical structure and includes chapters on justice as fairness, the principles of justice, and the original position. Part 2 establishes institutions of justice and includes chapters on equal liberty, distributive shares, and duty and obligation. Finally part 3 shows that these first two sections create a feasible conception of justice. This third section includes chapters on goodness as rationality, the sense of justice,and the good of justice.

The final articulation of the two principles of justice as fairness is presented in this way: “First principle: Everyone has an equal right to a system that gives them basic liberties.

The second principle of social justice is that each person should have access to what they need. Therefore, we must arrange the economy so people can benefit from it. To do this, everyone should have a fair chance at getting jobs and resources.

Everyone has the right to be free. That’s why liberty comes first in this list of rules. There are two cases: (a) you have to give someone else more freedom if it will strengthen everyone’s liberties; and (b) you can’t take away someone else’s freedom unless they agree with it or it doesn’t hurt them too much.

The second priority rule is that justice should be given more importance than efficiency and welfare. This is because fair opportunity comes before the difference principle. In other words, in order to achieve equality of opportunity, those with less opportunities should have their opportunities improved. And if a large amount of resources are being saved by some people, then this burden must be shared by others so that they can share the benefit as well (266).