RAWL'S PRINCIPLE

OF JUSTICE AS
FAIRNESS
JOHN RAWLS (1921-2002)
• American political philosopher in the
liberal tradition.

• Best known for his defense of egalitarian

liberalism in his major work.

• His magnum opus, "A Theory of Justice".

• He is widely considered the most

important political philosopher of the
20th century.
JOHN RAWLS (1921-2002)
Rawls believed that
rational, self-interested
people with roughly similar
needs would choose the
following three principles to
guide their moral
interactions;
 1. THE PRINCIPLE
OF EQUAL
LIBERTY

Each person is to be
granted the most significant
degree of liberty consistent
with a similar liberty for
everyone.
 1. THE PRINCIPLE
OF EQUAL
LIBERTY
This states that all citizens
have an equal right to
fundamental liberties, which
entails freedom of
conscience, expression,
association, and democratic
rights.
 1. THE PRINCIPLE
OF EQUAL
LIBERTY
Example: BASIC EQUAL LIBERTIES

The right to vote and hold public

office and freedom of speech.
 2. THE EQUALITY
PRINCIPLE

2.1 THE DIFFERENCE

PRINCIPLE

2.2 PRINCIPLE OF FAIR

EQUALITY OF
OPPORTUNITY
 2.1 THE
DIFFERENCE
PRINCIPLE
Practices that produce
inequalities among individuals
are allowable only if they work
out to everyone’s advantage and
the positions that come with
greater reward are open to all.
 2.1 THE
DIFFERENCE
PRINCIPLE

Inequalities are unjustified unless

they make the least advantaged
better off.
 2.1 THE
DIFFERENCE
PRINCIPLE
Example:
Inequalities in wealth, status, and
occupations are okay, as long as
all individuals benefit from the
arrangement like a financial
benefit.
 2.2 THE PRINCIPLE
OF FAIR EQUALITY
OF OPPORTUNITY
It requires that social positions,
such as jobs, be formally open
and meritocratically allocated,
but, in addition, each individual
has a fair chance to attain these
positions.
 2.2 THE PRINCIPLE
OF FAIR EQUALITY
OF OPPORTUNITY

These principles combine Kant

[treating people as free & equal]
& Utilitarianism [treating people
equal]
 2.2 THE PRINCIPLE
OF FAIR EQUALITY
OF OPPORTUNITY
Example:

All people should have a chance

to attain a college degree without
the hindrance of racial
discrimination.
What is the veil of ignorance?
•
SUBSTANTIVE SOCIAL JUSTICE
CONCLUSION

Justice as fairness, with its

principles of justice and the
institutionalization of the
values of public reason, can
produce such an overlapping
consensus.
CONCLUSION

This establishes a basis of fair

cooperation that is neutral among
substantive conceptions of the good
and thus is the conception of justice
that satisfies the criteria of reasonable
agreement and reflective equilibrium.
This completes both stages of the
justification.