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JOHN RAWLS'S PRINCIPLES OF JUSTICE
1. Each person may claim a “fully adequate” number of basic rights and
liberties, such as freedom of thought and speech, freedom of association,
the right to be safe from harm, and the right to own property, so long as
these claims are consistent with everyone else having a claim to the same
rights and liberties.
2. Any social and economic inequalities must satisfy two conditions: first,
they are associated with positions in society that everyone has a fair
and equal opportunity to assume; and second, they are “to be to the
greatest benefit of the least-advantaged members of society (the difference
principle).” [26, pp. 42-43]
Rawls's first principle of justice, illustrated in Figure 2.7, is quite close to our original
definition of social contract theory, except that it is stated from the point of view of rights
and liberties rather than moral rules. The second principle of justice, however, focuses
on the question of social and economic inequalities. It is hard to imagine a society in
which every person has equal standing. For example, it is unrealistic to expect every
person to be involved in every civic decision. Instead, we elect representatives who vote
in our place and officials who act on our behalf. Likewise, it is hard to imagine everybody
in a society having equal wealth. If we allow people to hold private property, we should
expect that some people will acquire more than others. According to Rawls, social and
economic inequalities are acceptable if they meet two conditions.
Just Unjust
FIGURE 2.7
Rawls's first principle of justice states that each person may have a “fully
adequate” number of rights and liberties as long as they are consistent with everyone else
having the same rights and liberties.
