HUL 258 – Term Paper

NAME: KANISHK JAIN

Entry No: 2018ME20689
Title: Justice (John Rawls on Justice)

Question: How will you look at the problem of injustice and discrimination on basis of
caste/race/gender etc. through the lens of John Rawls’s conception of Justice.

Arguments
1. In today’s world, some people are billionaires who are buying luxuries whereas there
are some people who are unable to afford their daily bread. In some countries
people don’t have freedom of speech, careers are decided on the basis of gender,
discriminated on the basis of religion and race. John Rawls tried to highlight these
inequalities in the society and explain why these injustices are unjust. He proposed
some principles and rules and mainly how to make rules which are acceptable to
every person living in a society.
2. John rawls attempted to describe how society should pursue the idea of justice. He
opposed the idea of the tyranny of majorities over minorities as he was also a
critique of Utilitarianism. He proposed that we should mainly focus on major social
and political institutions for making rules that society can accept. He tried to present
the idea of social justice in an unbiased way and identified it as the first
characteristic of society by introducing the Veil of Ignorance. He believed that people
should be unaware of each other’s background and particular facts when doing a
discussion so that no one gets unfair advantage of bargaining power and justice is
served to each one of them. There are two types of ideas by which moral force is
derived in a contract namely consent based(autonomy) and benefit
based(reciprocity). These two may fall short due to lack of knowledge and difference
in bargaining skills respectively.
3. He argued that between people of similar ability there should be equal distribution
of resources and everyone should have equal opportunities and chances. He
presented two principle of justice: First was the principle of equal liberty and second
was the principle of equality. According to principle of equal liberty, all citizens
should have freedom of expression, democratic rights and conscience. Principle of
equality states that less privileged people in society should get more benefits as
compare to advantaged part of society. These are necessary in society so that
anyone can occupy any position in any office regardless of background, ethnicity or
gender. According to him, we have no idea of race, gender, physical inabilities, social
status and in this way, we can could choose principles that would not discriminate
any individual and will be adopted by everyone. John further claimed that the
 reasoning of individual is governed by the maximin principle that is maximizing the
prospects of the least well-off. According to John Rawls theory of justice, there is a
second principle also named as difference principle. It mainly focuses on distribution
of power, wealth and social respect equally so that it benefits the least well-off of
society.

Critique
John Rawls missed certain facts about human talent. He missed the freedom to appropriate
what one produce through their talent and inheritance of possessions. His principle of
distribution of wealth somehow reduces the incentive of talented ones to produce more.
Many philosophers believed that division of pie must be on the basis of contribution in
making the pie.

Conclusion
John Rawls ideas deal quite well with the problem of injustice or discrimination on the basis
of caste, race, gender and other factors. But in most societies, some of his principles of
justice are violated but his approach offers correct answers in specific cases.

References
1. https://people.wku.edu/jan.garrett/ethics/johnrawl.htm
2. https://1000wordphilosophy.com/2018/07/27/john-rawls-a-theory-of-justice/
3. https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/other/a-theory-of-
justice/