Jaymie Ticknor Intro Philosophy 1050 Sect 003 26 February 2014 Lecture 12 John Rawls A Theory of Justice egalitarian equal distribution communist Time period Contemporary branch of philosophy Political Philosophy ethics Argues that justice is characterized primarily by fairness and that fairness is determinable primarily by abstracting ourselves from the peculiarities of our individual circumstances with our specific personal advantages and interests Social Contract Theory Sees the rule of law as a kind of contract that individuals enter into because it yields benefits what they can attain individually Thomas Hobbes and John Locke proposed that the state of nature is when people kill each other do not trust anyone chaotic in order to understand political obligation should conceive what human beings were like or would have been like before the creation of organized societies under governments and laws and then ask what reasons would have motivated people to form an organized society state of nature nasty brutish and short led to authority of society Moral Powers idea of a moral point of view traced back to Hume s account of the judicious spectator in making moral judgments individuals abstract in imagination from their own particular interests and adopt an impartial objective point of view center of theory from which they assess the effects of others actions on the interests of everyone that is affected Rawls s idea of the original position as initially conceived is his account of the moral point of view with regard to matters of justice Original Position standard of what sorts of laws and public policies are acceptable social contract is a thought experiment hypothetical decision people in this are behind a famous veil of ignorance personal considerations that are morally irrelevant to justice the principles of justice are chosen behind a veil of ignorance impossible to achieve completely avoid bias or impartial justice idea is to render obsolete those personal considerations that are morally irrelevant to the justice or injustice of principles meant to allocate the benefits of social cooperation Two Principles liberty everybody should have a right to a range of basic freedoms that must not be taken away from them but how free are we really difference concerned with equality claims that society should be arranged to give more equal wealth and opportunity to the most disadvantaged benefits the worst off project will make life better off for the people who are now worse off and access to the privileged positions is not blocked by discrimination according to irrelevant criteria