All lecture material for Quiz 3 synthesized PDF

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All necessary material to be tested in quiz 3...

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Rawls: Justice as Fairness -

Look at J  ustice by asking what principled would be chosen by people who came together behind a “veil of ignorance” that temporarily deprived them of any knowledge about where they would wind up in society - Hypothetical contract carried out in an original position of equality to produce principles untainted by differences in bargaining power or knowledge

The Role of Justice - Justice denies that the loss of freedom for some is made right by the greater good shared by others - Disputes Mill and Bentham - Society: self-sufficient association of persons who in their relations to one another recognize certain rules of contact as binding and who for the most part act in accordance with them - Rules specify a system of cooperation deisgned to advanced the good of those taking part in it - Society marked by c  onflict of interest and identity of interest - Conflict of interest: persons are not indifferent as to how the greater benefits produced by their collaboration are distributed - Identity of Interest: social cooperation makes possible a better life for all than any would have if each were to live solely by his own efforts - Principles of Social Justice: provide a way of assigning rights and duties in the basic institutions of society and they define the appropriate distribution of the benefits and burdens of social cooperation The Main Idea of the Theory of Social Justice - Principles of justice are those in which free and rational persons concerned to further their own interests would accept in an initial position of equality as defining the fundamental terms of their association - Determined by choice which rational men would make in a hypothetical situation of equal liberty assuming for the present that this choice problem has a solution - Conducted behind a V  eil of Ignorance - Ensures that no one is advantaged or disadvantaged in the choice of principles by the outcomes of natural chance or the contingency of social circumstances - Can then be said that members are cooperating on terms which they would agree to if they were free and equal persons whose relations with respect to one another were fair - Members are a  utonomous and obligations they recognize are s  elf-imposed - Think of parties as rational and mutually disinterested - Not taking an interest in one another’s interests

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Justice as fairness - Conveys the idea that principles of justice are agreed to in an initial situation that is fair - Parts 1. Interpretation of the initial situation and of the problem of choice posed there 2. Set of principles which it is argued, would be agreed to Principle of utility is incompatible with the conception of social cooperation among equals for mutual advantage - Rational man would not accept a basic structure merely because it maximized the algebraic sum of advantages irrespective of its permanent effects on his own basic rights and interests Initial principles 1. Equality in the assignment of basic rights and duties 2. Social and economic inequalities are only just if they result in the compensation of benefits for everyone, in particular for the least advantaged members of society - It is just for greater benefits earned by a few provided that the situation of persons not so fortunate is thereby improved - Since everyone’s well-being depends on a scheme of cooperation without which no one could have a satisfactory life, the division of advantages should be such as to draw forth the willing cooperation of everyone taking part in it, including those less well-situated - Principles serve to leave aside the arbitral aspects of the social world from a moral point of view

The Original Position and Justification - One conception of justice can be more reasonable than another if rational persons in this initial situation would choose its principles over those of the other for the role of justice - Conceptions are ranked based on their acceptability to persons in a certain circumstance - Connects theory of justice with theory of rational choice - No one should be advantaged or disadvantages by natural fortune or social circumstances in the choice of principles and it should be impossible to tailor principes to one’s personal circumstances - Purpose of initial conditions is to represent equality between human beings as moral persons and creatures having a conception of their good and capable of a sense of justice - These conditions define the principles of justice as those which rational persons concerned to advance their interests would consent to as equals when none are known to be advantaged or disadvantaged by social and natural contingencies - Can check the interpretation of the initial situation by the capacity of its principles to accommodate our firmest convictions and to provide guidance where needed

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Reflective equilibrium: altering the conditions of the contractual circumstances at others withdrawing our judgements and conforming them to principal to find a description that expresses reasonable conditions which should be imposed on the contractual situation and by particular cases which may lead us to revise our judgements

Critical Utilitarianism: - Society is properly arranged when its institutions maximize the net balance of satisfaction - Well being of society is to be constructed from fulfilment of systems of desires of the many individuals who belong to it - Principle for society is to advance as far as possible the welfare of the group, to realize to the greatest extent possible the comprehensive system of desire arrived at from the desires of its members - Society must balance the satisfactions and dissatisfactions between individuals - Social Justice: principle of rational prudence applied to an aggregative conception of the welfare of the group - Structure of an ethical theory is determined by how it defines and connects the basic notions of right and good - Good - Defined independently from right - Accounts for our considered judgements as to which things are good as a separate class of judgements intuitively distinguishable by common sense - Judge the goodness of things without referring to what is right - Perfectionism: realization of excellence in the various forms of culture - Hedonism: good as pleasure - Eudaimonism: good as happiness - Right - That which maximizes the most good - Institutions are right which of the available alternatives produce the most good or at least as much good as any of the other institutions and acts open as real possibilities - Appropriate terms of social cooperation are settled by whatever in the circumstances will achieve the greatest sum of satisfaction of the rational desires of individuals - How this sum if satisfaction is distributed among individuals is irrelevant; matters how one man distributes his satisfactions over time - Correct distribution = max fulfillment - Reference to utilitarianism - Not clear why the violation of liberty for a few may not be made right by the greater good of many it is just that it has been proven that the greatest sum of advantages is not attained this way - Most natural way of arriving at utilitarianism is to adopt for society as a whole the principle of rational choice for one man

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View of social cooperation is the consequence of extending to society the principle of choice for one man and then to make this extension work conflating all persons into one through the imaginative acts of the impartial sympathetic spectator

Some Related Contrasts - Each member of society is thought to have an inviolability founded on justice or as some say a natural right, which even the welfare of everyone else cannot override - In a just society the basic liberties are taken for granted and the rights secured by justice are not subject to political bargaining or to the calculus of social interests - Under the conditions of civilized society there is great social utility in following them for the most part and in permitting violations only under exceptional circumstances - Counterbalances a natural human tendency to violate rights in ways not sanctioned by utility - The question of attaining greatest net balance of satisfaction never arises in justice as fairness - Ask no questions about source or quality but only how their satisfaction would affect the total of well being - Social welfare depends solely and directly on the levels of satisfaction or dissatisfaction of individuals - In justice as fairness - Desires and aspirations are restricted from the outset by the principles of justice which specify the boundaries that men’s systems of ends must respect - Concept of right is prior of that to the good - Just social system defined the scope within which individuals must develop their aims, and it provides a framework of rights and opportunities and the means of satisfaction within and by the use of which these ends may be equitably pursued Two principles of Justice 1. Each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive basic liberty compatible with a similar liberty for others. - Basic liberties of citizens - Political liberty: right to vote and be eligible for public office - Freedom of speech and assembly - Liberty of conscience and freedom of thought - Freedom of person along with right to hold personal property - Freedom from arbitrary arrest and seizure as defined by the concept of the rule of law 2. Social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they are both a. Reasonably expected to be to everyone’s advantage b. Attached to positions and offices open to all - Principle applies to the distribution of income and wealth to the design of organizations that make use of differences in authority and responsibility or chains of command

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While the distribution of wealth and income need not be equal, it must be to everyone’s advantage and at the same time positions of authority and offices of command must be accessible to all Liberty and opportunity, income and wealth and the bases of self-respect are to be distributed equally unless an unequal distribution of any or all of these values is to everyone’s advantage Injustice: inequalities that are not to the benefit of all

Interpretations of the Second Principle 1. System of Natural Liberty - Open system in which carers are open to talents - A basic structure satisfying the principle of efficiency and in which positions are open to those able and willing to strive for them will lead to a just distribution. - Require a formal equality of opportunity in that all have at least the same legal rights of access to all advantaged social positions - Initial distribution of assets for any period of time is strongly influenced by natural and social contingencies - Injustice of the system is that is permits disruptive shares to be improperly influenced by these factors so arbitrary from a moral point of view . 2. System of Liberal Equality - Positions are to not only to be held in a formal sense but that all should have a fair chance in obtaining them - Assuming there is a distribution of natural assets, those who are at the same level of talent and ability, and have the same willingness to use them, should have the same prospects of success regardless of their initial place in the social system, that is, irrespective of the income class into which they are born. - Serves to mitigate the influence of social contingencies and natural fortune on disruptive shares - Free market arrangements must be set within a framework of political and legal institutions which regulates the overall trends of economic events and preserves the social conditions necessary for fair equality of opportunity - Injustice is that is still permits distribution of wealth and income to be determined by the natural distribution of abilities and talents - Distributive shares are decided by outcomes of natural lottery and this is arbitrary from moral perspective - Impossible to practice to secure equal chances of achievement and culture for those similarly endowed 3. System of Democratic Equality 4. System of Natural Aristocracy - Advantages of persons with greater natural endowments are to be limited to those that further the good of the poorer sectors of society.

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Idea of noblesse oblige Treats everyone equally moral as a person, and which does not weight men’s share in the benefits and burdens of social cooperation according to their social fortune or their luck in the natural lottery.

Democratic Equality and the Difference Principle - Social order is not to establish and secure the more attractive prospects of those better off unless doing so is to the advantage of those less fortunate - Higher expectations of those better situated are just if and only if they work as a part of a scheme which improves the expectations of the least advantaged members of society The Tendency to Equality - In order to treat all persons equally, to provide genuinely equality of opportunity, society must give more attention to those with less favorable social positions - Redress the bias of contingencies in the direction of equality - The d  ifference principle would allocate resources for education to improve the long-term expectation of the least favored - Role of education in enabling a person to enjoy the culture of his society and to take part in its affairs and in this way provide for each individual a secure sense of his own worth - Difference principal represents an agreement to regard the distribution of natural talents as a common asset and to share in the benefits of this distribution whatever it turns out to bee - Those favored by nature may gain their good fortune only on terms that improve the situation of those who have lost out - No one deserves his greater natural capacity no merits a more favorable starting place in society - Aristocratic and caste societies are unjust because they make these contingencies the basis for belonging to more or less enclosed and privileged social classes - In “Justice as Fairness” - Men agree to share one’s fate - Reciprocity: a principle of mutual benefit - Given a just system of cooperation as a scheme of public rules and the expectations set up by it , those who, with the prospect of improving their condition, have done what the system announces that it will reward and entitled to their advantages - No one deserves his place in the distribution of native endowments any more than one deserves one’s initial starting place in society The Veil of Ignorance - Do not know how the various alternatives will affect their own particular case and they are obliged to evaluate principles solely on the basis of general considerations

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Do not know - Place in society - Class position or social status - His fortune in the distribution of natual assets and abilities - Conception of the good - Particulars of rational plan of life - Special features of psychology such as aversion to risk or liability to optimism or pessimism - Particular circumstances of society - Economic or political situation - Level of civilization and culture that has been achieved - Which generation they belong - Contingencies that set them in opposition Ensures information decided is relevant and the same at all times Consequences - No one is in a position to tailor principles to his advantage - If a group were to decide to band together to the disadvantage of the others, they would not know how to favor themselves in the choice of principles - Can favor their generation (because knows present time) by refusing to make any sacrifices at all for their successors Veil of ignorance makes possible a unanimous choice of a particular conception of justice Implicit in Kant’s ethics Arbitrariness of the world must be corrected for by adjusting the circumstances of the initial contractual situation Enables us to say of the preferred conception of justice that it represents a genuine reconciliation of interests...