Rawls
1. Fundamental Question: What principles of justice would we agree to under conditions
of fairness?
• Well-ordered society: everyone accepts fundamental principles of justice, and
everyone can see that they are being implemented
• Political Conception of the Person: (i) capacity to form, revise, and pursue one’s
conception of the good; (ii) capacity for a sense of justice
• 2 Questions:
1. What principles could all agree to as principles for governing the major social
institutions, backed by coercion (i.e., as political principles).
2. Under what conditions could we reach an agreement on fundamental political
principles that each of us could recognize the principles as binding on us?
2. Two Principles of Justice
(1) Each person has the same indefeasible claim to a fully adequate scheme of equal
basic liberties, which scheme is compatible with the same scheme of liberties for all;
and
(2) Social and economic inequalities are to satisfy two conditions: first, they are to be
attached to offices and positions open to all under conditions of fair equality of
opportunity; and second, they are to be to the greatest benefit of the least-advantaged
members of society.
• First principle: equal liberties (political liberties, speech, association, liberty and
integrity of the person, rights associated with the rule of law)
• First principles does not protect choice in general nor is protection grounded in
the value of liberty as such
• Second principle is egalitarian: (i) fair equality of opportunity; and (ii) the
difference principle
ÿ Fair Equality of Opportunity: Two people with equal talent and equal
ambition ought not have different life prospects simply because they come
from different socio-economic classes.
ÿ Difference Principle: Inequalities must maximize the position of the least-
advantaged members of society
• First principle has priority over second: no trading liberty for economic benefits
• Within second principle, (i) has priority over (ii).
3. The Meaning of the Principles
• The first principle rejects utilitarianism: basic liberties are to be protected
regardless of the benefits to the general welfare in restricting them
• The second principle rejects libertarianism: redistribution and other measures that
aim at equality do not conflict with the basic liberties.
• First principle protects basic liberties; second principle ensures that the minimum
value of these liberties is maximized.
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