PHIL1003 Ethics and Society
Semester I 2010-2011
Lecture 16: Rawls – Justice 2 [these notes are the text from the Powerpoint used
in class]
Reading: John Rawls, A Theory of Justice, extracts.
Basic structure as primary subject of social justice
Basic structure: political constitution, independent judiciary, structure of economy,
family
First consideration: profound effect of basic structure
• People in a basic structure inevitably have life chances differentially affected
by various contingencies
e.g. native endowments, initial social position
Moral standing of such inequalities
• Are they voluntarily assumed?
• Are they merely the product of natural forces?
Brown v Board of Education in the US 1954
Are the effects of such contingencies minor? Local example:
Financial Secretary of HK in Budget speech 2010: “We will grant [students from
low-income families] a subsidy for Internet access charges, and encourage the market
to provide them with economical Internet services.”
Can one’s native endowments and initial social position justified by moral desert?
No.
Even in cases of conscientious effort, the justifying force of “desert” is often
limited:
“[I]t seems clear that the effort a person is willing to make is influenced by his
natural abilities and.. alternatives open to him. The better endowed are more likely,
other things equal, to strive conscientiously, and there seems to be no way to discount
their greater good fortune.” (TJ 312)
A issue that calls for serious moral reflection: how can such deep institutional
inequalities be justified if society is to be taken as a scheme of cooperation among
free and equal citizens?
Second consideration: Importance of institutional justice
Interactional justice: Distribution at any point of time is just if it has emerged
from an ideal historical process, one in which certain principles governing
interactions and transactions are observed.
E.g. Nozick
What are the conditions under which the notion of “agreements between
consenting agents” bear the justificatory force attributed to it?
Example: Price gouging after Hurricane Charley hit Florida in summer 2004
Price of bags of ice rose from $2 to $10
Certain background conditions of justice must obtain for “agreements by
consenting parties” to carry the moral weight often attributed to it.
Bargaining power between parties should not exceed certain limits.
Such background conditions tend to be undermined over time even when the
individual interactions in the “foreground” are apparently fair.
“When our social world is pervaded by duplicity and deceit we are tempted to
think that law and government are necessary only because of the propensity of
individuals to act unfairly. But, to the contrary, the tendency is rather for
background justice to be eroded even when individuals act fairly… in this
case the invisible hand guides things in the wrong direction and favors
oligopolistic configuration that succeeds in maintaining unjustified
inequalities and restrictions on fair opportunity.” (Political Liberalism p.
267)
Setup of the Original Position
Parties:
• are symmetrically situated
• are behind a veil of ignorance: denied particularizing knowledge (e.g.
conception of a good life, position in natural lottery, social class, kind of
society they are born into).
• have an interest in social primary goods (basic rights and liberties,
opportunities, income and wealth).
Why care about a hypothetical contract?
OP models our considered judgments about how agreement on principles of
justice should be reached.
What are represented?
Perfect symmetry: all citizens are equal in choosing principles of justice.
Veil of ignorance: choice of principles should be guarded against bias of
self-interest.
Review of the Two Principles
Liberty principle(LP): Each person has an equal claim to a fully adequate scheme of
equal basic rights and liberties, which scheme is compatible with the same scheme for
all; and in this scheme the equal political liberties, and only those liberties, are to be
guaranteed their fair value.
Principle of opportunity(OP): Social and economic inequalities are to be attached to
positions and offices open to all under conditions of fair equality of opportunity.
Difference principle(DP): Social and economic inequalities are to be to the greatest
benefit of the least advantaged members of society.
Meaning of LP and its priority
Liberty principle is lexically prior to the other principle(s). Principle of
opportunity is lexically prior to the different principle.
Meaning: There is to be no trade-off between basic liberties and social goods
regulated by the OP and DP.
Why the LP rather than the principle of utility?
First consideration
The principle of utility in some realistic circumstances would generate social
positions that are intolerable to the parties.
Why intolerable?
One of citizens’ fundamental interests: being able to rationally form, revise
and pursue one’s conception of a good life.
Second consideration: Strains of commitment
Reaching an agreement involves making an undertaking in good faith.
LP has a definite advantage over the principle of utility as the latter might
Meaning of DP
generate worst-case scenarios that citizens cannot be expected to willingly
comply.
It governs the distribution of primary goods of income and wealth.
Not all inequalities are disallowed.
Some inequalities, as incentive to elicit greater productive efforts or induce
innovation, are good for everyone.
Inequalities unjust if position of least advantaged not maximized.
It satisfies Pareto efficiency.
It does not require continual capital accumulation.
Scenario
total product
% of total
product
redistributed
A: the more
productive
B: the less
productive
1
100
100
50
50
2
150
80
80(60+20)
60
3
160
70
104(56+48)
56
Arguments for the DP
First consideration
Previous question: How can institutional inequalities among free and equal citizens be
justified?
Reciprocity: Citizens are to gain from various contingencies only in ways that
benefit others, including the least advantaged .
Second consideration: Stability
DP more effective than principle of utility in generating moral allegiance.
Extending Rawls’s principles beyond domestic societies?
The existence of a global basic structure
International trade regime, global financial and capital market, etc
Pervasive impact of global basic structure
Difference between life and death (about 40% of humankind live below poverty
line)
Nationality is just another contingency, like gender or race.
Rawls rejects extending DP to the global realm, others (Thomas Pogge,
Charles Beitz) disagree.