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Contemporary Views of Justice and The Social Contract
Contemporary Views of Justice and The Social Contract
“What is Fairness or
Social Justice in Today’s
Society?”
Three Major
Conceptions of Justice
In Contemporary
Democracy
• Libertarian
• Egalitarian
• Contractarian
Libertarian View of
Justice in the Social
Contract
Thomas Jefferson
John Rawls
A Theory of Justice
Tension . . .
• Justice creates the circumstance
under which cooperation is both
possible and necessary.
• It is not possible to have a social
contract that promotes cooperation
unless there is a system of justice.
• Justice presupposes conflicts of
interest. If never any conflicts
among people we would need no
theory of justice, or a “social
contract.”.
• The values of liberty and equality
often conflict and thus compete with
one another.
• What happens when your liberty
precludes my equality, or vice
versa?
John Rawls’
Contractarian Theory
of Justice
• Blends libertarian and egalitarian
views, attempting to balance the
ideals of liberty and equality.
• It does so by emphasizing, as a
moral requirement, that those who
have more than enough, help those
in need.
• Accepts the egalitarian criticism of
negative rights, thus wants to
advocate for working for the
common good.
• But also accepts the the libertarian
view that one’s liberty should not
be unduly violated.
Rawls . . .
Lester Thurow
MIT economist
in “How Much Inequality Can A
Democracy Take?”