DOCSLIB.ORG

THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY of AMERICA John Rawls, Political

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY of AMERICA John Rawls, Political THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA John Rawls, Political Justice, and the Problem of Universality and Particularity A DISSERTATION Submitted to the Faculty of the Department of Politics School of Arts and Sciences Of The Catholic University of America In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree Doctor of Philosophy © Copyright All Rights Reserved By Brett Larson Washington, D.C. 2015 John Rawls, Political Justice, and the Problem of Universality and Particularity Brett Larson, Ph.D. Director: Claes G. Ryn, Ph.D. Abstract John Rawls is widely regarded by both critics and defenders as the most important political philosopher of the latter half of the twentieth century. Philosophers since at least the time of Plato and Aristotle have wrestled with the problem of the relationship between the universal and the particular. Astonishingly, no scholar has seriously investigated either Rawls’s understanding of the relationship between universality and particularity or how his view of this connection affects his justification for liberal democracy. This dissertation fills this glaring void. It attempts to answer two primary research questions. The first concerns what Rawls’s political philosophy implies about the relationship between universality and particularity, and the second pertains to how this implicit view influences his defense of liberal democracy. This dissertation applies a traditional hermeneutical method of textual analysis to all of the writings of Rawls that are relevant to answering these two questions. Throughout his voluminous works, Rawls attempts to insulate his conception of justice from the influence of historical circumstances. Rawls admits that the three fundamental ideas of justice as fairness—the conception of the person, the idea of a well-ordered society, and the idea of society as a fair system of cooperation—are ideals that do not exist in historical political orders. Additionally, Rawls derives the two principles of justice as fairness from the hypothetical and non-historical original position. Further, Rawls claims that his work describes political institutions that can arise only under highly idealized conditions and that these institutions should serve as the standard for measuring the validity of actual political orders. Rawls’s attempt to construct a conception of justice on the basis of ahistorical ideals and devices suggests that he thinks that political right is a standard that exists outside of historical societies. The acceptance of a dichotomy between justice and tradition indicates that Rawls thinks that universality is separate from particularity. Despite the revisions that he made to justice as fairness after his so-called political turn, Rawls was unable to resolve this problem. Rawls’s assumption that universality and particularity are antithetical weakens his defense of democracy. Since Rawls argues that justice is a standard that is divorced from concrete circumstances, it is unclear how the former is relevant to the latter. By separating right and history, Rawls grants legitimacy to the practice of undermining actual political orders in the name of abstract ideals. Also, Rawls’s rigid distinction between the ideal conception of justice and the conditions of actual political orders may cause citizens to become disillusioned with their institutions and to think that genuine justice is impossible. Additionally, Rawls’s appeal to an ahistorical standard of right does not provide a solid evidentiary basis for adjudicating between conflicting abstract views of justice. Finally, Rawls’s claim that liberal democracy is the only just political system may facilitate perpetual hostility between liberal and non-liberal states. This dissertation by Brett Larson fulfills the dissertation requirement for the doctoral degree in politics approved by Claes G. Ryn, Ph.D., as Director, and by David Walsh, Ph.D., and Dennis Coyle, Ph.D. as Readers. __________________________________ Claes G. Ryn, Ph.D., Director __________________________________ David Walsh, Ph.D., Reader __________________________________ Dennis Coyle, Ph.D., Reader ii CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE ............................................................................................................................. 1 The Importance of Rawls ............................................................................................................ 1 The Significance of Universality and Particularity ..................................................................... 2 Research Questions and Thesis ................................................................................................... 6 Is another Dissertation on Rawls Justified? ................................................................................ 9 Departures from Previous Approaches ..................................................................................... 10 Outline of the Dissertation ........................................................................................................ 20 CHAPTER TWO .......................................................................................................................... 22 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 22 Rawls’s Rejection of Rational Intuitionism .............................................................................. 23 Ideal and Non-Ideal Theory ...................................................................................................... 26 The Three Fundamental Ideas of Justice as Fairness ................................................................ 28 CHAPTER THREE ...................................................................................................................... 36 The Original Position ................................................................................................................ 36 The Two Principles of Justice as Fairness ................................................................................ 46 The Argument from the Original Position ................................................................................ 54 The Four Stage Sequence .......................................................................................................... 59 Ideas of the Good in Justice as Fairness ................................................................................... 62 iii The Priority of Right ................................................................................................................. 64 Rawls’s Method of Justification ............................................................................................... 69 CHAPTER FOUR ......................................................................................................................... 75 Rawls’s Political Turn............................................................................................................... 75 The Problem of Stability in A Theory of Justice ....................................................................... 77 The Problem of Stability in Political Liberalism ...................................................................... 85 Reasonable versus True ............................................................................................................ 96 Is Rawls’s Political Turn Historical? ...................................................................................... 100 CHAPTER FIVE ........................................................................................................................ 104 The Idea of Public Reason ...................................................................................................... 104 The Law of Peoples ................................................................................................................ 107 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 116 Chapter Six.................................................................................................................................. 119 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 119 Walzer’s Criticism of Rawls ................................................................................................... 120 Sandel’s Criticism of Rawls.................................................................................................... 124 Nozick’s Criticism of Rawls ................................................................................................... 131 Cohen’s Criticism of Rawls .................................................................................................... 137 Rorty’s Defense of Rawls ....................................................................................................... 141 iv Habermas’s Criticism of Rawls .............................................................................................. 145 Bloom’s and Schaefer’s Criticisms of Rawls ......................................................................... 150 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 154 Chapter Seven ............................................................................................................................
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Intercollegiate Political Philosophy Lectures
    This handout can be downloaded at www.ucl.ac.uk/~uctyvmd/Handout.pdf Intercollegiate Political Philosophy Lectures Looking Again at Rawls’s Theory of Justice Room 421, Birkbeck Main Building Thursdays 11-12, Weeks 1-5, Autumn Term 2004-2005 Véronique Munoz-Dardé Department of Philosophy, UCL E-mail: [email protected] Office Hours: Mondays 11-12 These lectures will be devoted to Justice as Fairness, Rawls’s conception of justice, as developed in the revised edition of A Theory of Justice (1999, hereafter, in all handouts, TJ) and Justice as Fairness a Restatement (2001, hereafter JFR). The purpose of these lectures is to come to an understanding of the fundamental ideas of Rawls’s approach, and how they fit together: the Original Position, Reflective Equilibrium, the Basic Structure, the Difference Principle, Reasonable Overlapping Consensus, the difference between Political Liberalism and Comprehensive Liberalism, etc… We will do this by going back and forth between TJ and the mature statement of the theory in JFR. In Rawls’s own words in the preface of JFR: In this work I have two aims. One is to rectify the more serious faults in A Theory of Justice that have obscured the main ideas of justice as fairness, as I called the conception of justice presented in that book. Since I still have confidence in those ideas and think the more important difficulties can be met, I have undertaken this reformulation. […] The other aim is to connect into one unified statement the conception of justice presented in Theory and the main ideas in my essays beginning with 1974.
    [Show full text]
  • Justice As Fairness, Utilitarianism, and Mixed Conceptions
    1 Justice as fairness, utilitarianism, and mixed conceptions David O. Brink It would be hard to overstate the philosophical significance of John Rawls’s TJ.1 It articulates and defends an egalitarian conception of liberalism and distributive justice that consists of two principles of justice: a principle of equal basic liberties and a principle that distributes social and economic goods and opportunities so as to be to the greatest benefit of the least advantaged. Rawls defends this liberal egalitarian conception of justice primarily as an alternative to utilitarianism.2 He situates his defense of this liberal egalitarian conception of justice within the social contract tradition by arguing that his principles of distributive justice would be preferred to utilitarianism and other Thanks to David Estlund, Tim Hinton, Theron Pummer, and Paul Weithman for comments on an earlier draft. I learned much of what I know about the appeal and resources of justice as fairness while I was at MIT in the late 1980s and early 1990s, especially from interactions with John Rawls, Tim Scanlon, Derek Parfit, and my (then) colleague Joshua Cohen. This essay develops ideas in lectures that I gave on justice as fairness during that period, which Tim Hinton attended and discussed with me. 1 Unless otherwise noted, all references to Rawls will be to TJ. The second edition (TJR) was published in 1999. Because the section numbering is the same in the two editions, I will refer to TJ using section numbers as much as possible. Rawls offers a restatement and reinterpret- ation of justice as fairness in JFR.
    [Show full text]
  • The Idea of Public Reason Resuscitated
    William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal Volume 10 (2001-2002) Issue 3 Article 5 April 2002 The Idea of Public Reason Resuscitated James P. Madigan Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmborj Part of the Constitutional Law Commons, and the First Amendment Commons Repository Citation James P. Madigan, The Idea of Public Reason Resuscitated, 10 Wm. & Mary Bill Rts. J. 719 (2002), https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmborj/vol10/iss3/5 Copyright c 2002 by the authors. This article is brought to you by the William & Mary Law School Scholarship Repository. https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmborj THE IDEA OF PUBLIC REASON RESUSCITATED James P. Madigan In this Article, James Madigan examines the role ofpublic reason in a democratic government, including what views shouldplay a role in determining public reason. Madigan criticizesJohn Rawls for including comprehensive views in constitutionaldebates, and argues that only reasonsgrounded in politicalvalues should be used when debatingconstitutional issues and fundamental rights. I standfor the separation of church and state, and the reason that I standfor that is the same reason that I believe ourforefathers did. It is not there to protect religionfrom the grasp of government, but to protect our governmentfrom the grasp of religiousfanaticism. I may be an atheist, but that does not mean I do not go to church. I do go to church. The church Igo to is the one that emancipated the slaves. It gave women the right to vote. It gave us every freedom that we hold dear. My church is this very chapel of democracy that we sit in together, and I do not need God to tell me what are my moral absolutes.
    [Show full text]
  • Considerations of Social Justice: Primary Goods & Functional
    Considerations of Social Justice: Primary Goods & Functional Capabilities Considerations of social justice within liberal frameworks are often bound up with the notion of equality of opportunity. Equality of opportunity within liberal theory is generally discussed as requiring the determination of principles, or procedures to be used in distributing general “means-goods” such as income and wealth in the society. These may be called “means-goods” because they have no intrinsic value. They are means to realising various ends, and they are “general” insofar as they can be used to realise a wide range of possible ends. John Rawls exemplified this by treating the question of distributive justice principally in terms of the distribution of “primary social goods” such as income and wealth. This understanding of the problem of social justice is theoretically adequate, but too narrow in practice. In theory, Rawls posited that citizens would have developed moral powers (a sense of justice and a capacity to form conception of the good), would view each other as similarly free and equal, and be normal co-operating members of society. In practice, these assumptions regarding citizen capacities are too strong; and have the effect of conflating poverty with disadvantage. Building on the work of Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum, I argue that prior to, and in addition to questions of general means-goods, the problem of social justice requires attention to the development and maintenance of basic human functional capabilities. The reason for this is that “primary social goods” define a person’s advantage in terms of being “well-off”, rather in terms of “well-being”.
    [Show full text]
  • Rawls and Capabilities: the Current Debate CLAUDIO D’AMATO, VIRGINIA TECH (2014)
    Rawls and capabilities: the current debate CLAUDIO D’AMATO, VIRGINIA TECH (2014) The capability approach to justice was con- answer different questions in substantially differ- ceived as an alternative to the Rawlsian scholar- ent realms of inquiry and applicability. ship that became dominant in moral and political philosophy at the end of the XX century. Among I. Justice as fairness other issues, capability theorists have objected to Rawls’s identification of the currency of distribu- Rawls argues that the object of distributive jus- tive justice with primary goods and to the claim tice is the basic structure of society (1999a: 3); i.e., that the appropriate subject of distributive justice the political institutions that regulate the interac- is the basic structure of society. As Ingrid Robeyns tions of free and equal citizens in a democratic (2011) puts it, capability theorists argue that capa- “cooperative venture for mutual advantage” bility as a “metric of justice” does a better job than (1999a: 4). The subjects of distributive justice are Rawlsian primary goods at capturing what human the citizens themselves, whose representatives, beings seek in a social distributive scheme. How- while in an original position of initial fairness, ever, the relation between the two sides of the de- concur on a political conception of justice that all bate is not one of stark opposition, but rather one can endorse. Even if they privately endorse widely of productive exchange: all work within the liberal different comprehensive doctrines—religious, political tradition, and in the last few years there philosophical, traditional, historical, and moral— has been considerable mutual understanding, co- each doctrine, if it be reasonable, yet comprises operation, and a certain softening of the two sides’ the theoretical elements to support a public and original positions—pun intended.
    [Show full text]
  • Martha Nussbaum's Outcome-Oriented Theory of Justice
    Martha Nussbaum’s outcome-oriented theory of justice Philosophical comments Cathrine Holst Working Paper No. 16, December 2010 ARENA Working Paper (print) | ISSN 1890-7733 ARENA Working Paper (online) | ISSN 1890- 7741 Working papers can be downloaded from the ARENA homepage: http://www.arena.uio.no Abstract The capability approach developed by Martha Nussbaum and Amartya Sen has received substantial attention in recent years, in philosophical exchanges as well as in more applied discussions on policy-making, in particular in developing countries, but lately also in Western countries, including Europe and the EU. This paper contributes to the philosophical exchanges of Nussbaum’s version of the capability approach. Nussbaum herself presents her contribution as an alternative to John Rawls’ theory of justice, and following her lead, this paper compares Nussbaum and Rawls. The first part presents Nussbaum’s position and how it differs from Rawls’; the second and third parts develop arguments against substituting primary goods and a procedural justification of justice (Rawls) with capabilities and an ethical justification of justice (Nussbaum); the fourth part highlights some problems with Nussbaum’s conception of justice compared to Rawls’. The fifth and final part discusses how the critical points of the first four parts relate to European studies discussions on legitimacy in general and to RECON’s normative framework in particular. The merits of Nussbaum’s approach from a gender perspective are given particular attention. Keywords Democracy — Gender Policy — Justice — Legitimacy — Philosophy Reproduction of this text is subject to permission by the authors © ARENA 2010 Martha Nussbaum’s outcome-oriented theory of justice The capability approach developed by Martha Nussbaum and Amartya Sen has received substantial attention in recent years, both in philosophical exchanges and in more applied discussions on policy- making, in particular in developing countries, but lately also in Western countries (see for example Robeyns 2003, Alkire et al.
    [Show full text]
  • Rawlsian Self-Respect and Limiting Liberties in the Background Culture
    University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Masters Theses Graduate School 5-2016 Rawlsian Self-Respect and Limiting Liberties in the Background Culture Kyle William Chapel University of Tennessee - Knoxville, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes Part of the Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Chapel, Kyle William, "Rawlsian Self-Respect and Limiting Liberties in the Background Culture. " Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 2016. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/3757 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Kyle William Chapel entitled "Rawlsian Self-Respect and Limiting Liberties in the Background Culture." I have examined the final electronic copy of this thesis for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, with a major in Philosophy. Adam Cureton, Major Professor We have read this thesis and recommend its acceptance: John Nolt, Markus Kohl, Jon Garthoff Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) Rawlsian Self-Respect and Limiting Liberties in the Background Culture A Thesis Presented for the Master of Arts Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Kyle William Chapel May 2016 ii Copyright © 2016 by Kyle Chapel All rights reserved.
    [Show full text]
  • JUSTICE AS FAIRNESS by John Rawls (1971)
    JUSTICE AS FAIRNESS By John Rawls (1971) The Main Idea of The Theory of Justice My aim is to present a conception of justice which generalizes and carries to a higher level of abstraction the familiar theory of the social contract as found, say, in Locke, Rousseau, and Kant. In order to do this we are not to think of the original contract as one to enter a particular society or to set up a particular form of government. Rather, the guiding idea is that the principles of justice for the basic structure of society are the object of the original agreement. They are the principles that free and rational persons concerned to further their own interests would accept in an initial position of equality as defining the fundamental terms of their association. These principles are to regulate all further agreements; they specify the kinds of social cooperation that can be entered into and the forms of government that can be established. This way of regarding the principles of justice I shall call justice as fairness. Thus we are to imagine that those who engage in social cooperation choose together, in one joint act, the principles which are to assign basic rights and duties and to determine the division of social benefits. Men are to decide in advance how they are to regulate their claims against one another and what is to be the foundation charter of their society. Just as each person must decide by rational reflection what constitutes his good, that is, the system of ends which it is rational for him to pursue, so a group of persons must decide once and for all what is to count among them as just and unjust.
    [Show full text]
  • Rawls and Health Care
    Colby College Digital Commons @ Colby Honors Theses Student Research 2007 Rawls and Health Care Elizabeth H. Coogan Colby College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/honorstheses Part of the Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons, and the Health and Medical Administration Commons Colby College theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed or downloaded from this site for the purposes of research and scholarship. Reproduction or distribution for commercial purposes is prohibited without written permission of the author. Recommended Citation Coogan, Elizabeth H., "Rawls and Health Care" (2007). Honors Theses. Paper 501. https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/honorstheses/501 This Honors Thesis (Open Access) is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Research at Digital Commons @ Colby. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Colby. RAWLS AND HEALTH CARE Liz Coogan Philosophy Department Colby College May 2007 This thesis is presented in partial completion of the the Honors Program in Philosophy. Advisor ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This project could not have been completed without the help of many people. First, I would like recognize my advisor, Cheshire Calhoun, for her invaluable guidance. From beginning to end I benefited both from her insights on the philosophical problems I considered and from her familiarity with and sage advice about the difficulties that any independent writing project inevitably involves. I would also like to thank the members of the Colby College Philosophy Department who, over the last four years, taught me the skills which I used throughout the year while writing this thesis.
    [Show full text]
  • Equality of What?
    Equality of What? AMARTYA SEN THE TANNER LECTURE ON HUMAN VALUES Delivered at Stanford University May 22, 1979 AMARTYA SEN is Drummond Professor of Political Econ- omy at Oxford University. He is also Fellow of All Souls College, and Andrew D. White Professor at Large at Cornell University. Professor Sen was born in India and studied at Calcutta and at Cambridge. He has taught at Calcutta, Cambridge, Delhi, and London, and also at Berkeley, Harvard, M.I.T., and Stanford. His books in- clude Choice of Techniques, Collective Choice and Social Welfare, On Economic Inequality, and Employment, Technology and Development. His Poverty and Famines is in press, while another book, Welfare and Rights, is nearing completion. He has published articles in eco- nomics, philosophy, political science, decision theory, and history. Discussions in moral philosophy have offered us a wide menu in answer to the question: equality of what? In this lecture I shall concentrate on three particular types of equality, viz., (i) utili- tarian equality, (ii) total utility equality, and (iii) Rawlsian equality. I shall argue that all three have serious limitations, and that while they fail in rather different and contrasting ways, an adequate theory cannot be constructed even on the combined grounds of the three. Towards the end I shall try to present an alternative formulation of equality which seems to me to deserve a good deal more attention than it has received, and I shall not desist from doing some propaganda on its behalf. First a methodological question. When it is claimed that a certain moral principle has shortcomings, what can be the basis of such an allegation? There seem to be at least two different ways of grounding such a criticism, aside from just checking its direct appeal to moral intuition.
    [Show full text]
  • Primary Goods Revisited: the "Political Problem" and Its Rawlsian Solution Robert C
    Cornell Law Library Scholarship@Cornell Law: A Digital Repository Cornell Law Faculty Publications 9-17-2006 Primary Goods Revisited: The "Political Problem" and Its Rawlsian Solution Robert C. Hockett Cornell Law School, [email protected] Mathias Risse Harvard University - John F. Kennedy School of Government, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/lsrp_papers Recommended Citation Hockett, Robert C. and Risse, Mathias, "Primary Goods Revisited: The "Political Problem" and Its Rawlsian Solution" (2006). Cornell Law Faculty Publications. Paper 55. http://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/lsrp_papers/55 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Cornell Law: A Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Cornell Law Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Cornell Law: A Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. CORNELL LAW SCHOOL LEGAL STUDIES RESEARCH PAPER SERIES Primary Goods Revisited: The "Political Problem" and Its Rawlsian Solution Robert Hockett and Mathias Risse Cornell Law School Myron Taylor Hall Ithaca, NY 14853-4901 Cornell Law School research paper No. 06-030 This paper can be downloaded without charge from: The Social Science Research Network Electronic Paper Collection: http://ssrn.com/abstract=931048 Primary Goods Revisited: the “Political Problem” and Its Rawlsian Solution Robert Hockett, Yale Law School Mathias Risse, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University December 15, 2003 1. Introduction 1.1 Relations between the “subjective” and “objective” aspects of the proper currency of justice remain unsettled.1 On the one hand, objections featuring the “tame housewife,” cheerful crippled “Tiny Tim,” the “expensive tastes”-cultivating “Louis,” or the Scanlonian ascetic have underscored the insufficiency of subjective welfare to accommodate concerns about preferences that either are formed under conditions of injustice or are themselves in some sense unjust (cf.
    [Show full text]
  • Enhancing John Rawls's Theory of Justice to Cover
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Revistas Académicas de la Universidad de Chile Acta Bioethica 2015; 21 (2): 227-236 ENHANCING JOHN RAWLS’S THEORY OF JUSTICE TO COVER HEALTH AND SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH1 Perihan Elif Ekmekci2, Berna Arda3 Abstract: The vast improvements in medical technology reviled the crucial role of social determinants of health for the etiol- ogy, prevalence and prognosis of diseases. This changed the content of the right to health concept from a demand of health services, to a claim of having access to all social determinants of health. Thus, the just allocation of scarce resources of health and social determinants of health became an issue of ethical theories. John Rawls developed a theory of justice. His theory suggests that the principles of justice should be determined by individuals in a hypothetic initial position. In the initial posi- tion, individuals agree on principles of justice. Rawls puts forth that the institutions of the society should be structured in compliance with these principles to reach a fair social system. Although Rawls did not justify right to health in his theory, the efforts to enlarge the theory to cover right to health flourished quite fast. In this paper first the basic components of Rawls theory is explained. Then the most outstanding approaches to enlarge his theory to cover right to health is introduced and discussed within the discourse of Rawls theory of justice. Key words: distributive justice, ethical theory, right to health, social determinants of health Mejora de la teoría de justicia de John Rawls para abordar temas de salud y los determinantes sociales de la salud Resumen: Los grandes avances en tecnología médica desafían el papel crucial de los determinantes sociales de la salud en la etiología, prevalencia y prognosis de las enfermedades.
    [Show full text]