Values and Justice A New Perspective

Author(s): Hemant Shah
Publisher: Z_Philosophical_Writings_001802.pdf

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Philosophical Writings
'Justice' is to be understood in its customary sense as representing but one of the many virtues of social institutions ..... Justice is not to be confused with an all inclusive vision of a good society; it is only one part of any such conception."
The conception of justice which Rawls develops is in the form of two principles: First; each person participating in a practice, or affected by it, has an equal right to the most extensive liberty compatible with a like liberty for all, and, Second; inequalities are arbitrary unless it is reasonable to expect that they will work out for everyone's advantage, and provide the position and offices to which they attach, or form which they may be gained, are open to all. These principles express justice as a complex of three ideas: Liberty, Equality and Reward for Services contributing to the common goods. The principles of justice, in John Rawls, can be viewed, then, as an understanding between moral persons not to exploit for one's own advantage the contingencies of their world, but to regulate the accidental distribution of nature and social chance is ways that are mutually beneficial for all.'
Understandingly Justice as fairness, with reference to John Rawls, we should be clear that 'Justice' and 'Fairness' are indeed, different concepts, but they share, a fundamental element in common, which Rawls call the concept of reciprocity'. To John Rawls, justice, first of all, "is a moral virtue in the sense that it arises once the concept of morality is imposed on mutually self interested persons who are similarly situated; it is first moral concept to be generated when one steps outside the bounds of rational self interest."!!
Rawls's Two Principles of Justice:
In his paper on "A Kantian Conception of Equality' (1975) he gives two principles of justice and then discusses the appropriateness of these principles for a well ordered society.' These principles are as follows: