The Conception of International Justice - Essay Example

It was revised and translated in both 1975 and 1999 but was originally published in 1971. In this theory, Rawls tries to find a solution on the issue of distributive justice by utilization of the social contract. This theory results in the formation of another theory known as Justice as Fairness, which deals with the difference principle and liberty principle (Freeman 2007, p. 10). Justice as Fairness is John Rawls’ political conception of justice. It encompasses two main principles of Equality and Liberty (Rawls 2001, p. 73). The principle of Equality is further divided into the Difference Principle and Fair Equality of Opportunity.

He organized them in a prioritizing order as from the Liberty Principle to Fair Equality of Opportunity and finally to the Difference Principle. In case of a conflict in practice, the priorities determine the order of principles. He makes use of the social contract device, inquiring what principles of justice people agree to when making and designing humanity. Justice as fairness presents a description of human nature further than the traditions of greedy egoist or saintly altruists and believing that human beings are both reasonable and rational (Thomas 2007, p. 54). Human beings become rational to achieve ends they want to meet, but they get reasonable when the ends become cooperatively possible by sticking to mutually suitable regulatory principles.

In the Liberty Principle, Rawls claims that every human being has the same and equal right to essential liberties, and became confident that some freedoms and rights are basic than others. In this theory, he eloquently described the Liberty Principle as a broad, fundamental liberty compatible with others and later amended it in Political Liberalism. It involves the freedom of association, expression, conscience, and democratic rights as well as personal property right (Rawls 2001, p. 40). In this theory, Rawls presents economic and social inequalities in a manner that they appeared either of the greatest importance to the least advantaged, dependable with the immediately savings principle, or emotionally involved in positions and offices unlocked to everyone under the circumstance of reasonable equality of opportunity.

He argued that this principle guarantee liberties that signify meaningful options to everyone in a society and confirm distributive justice. Fair Equality of Opportunity Principle maintains that positions and offices should be open to the entire citizens regardless of their ethnicity, social background or sex. Here, he argued that a person should get effective equal opportunity like any other of similar natural ability rather than having solitary right to opportunities. The Difference principle allows inequalities that work only to the advantage of the worse off.

He brings out the argument about the system where the wealth gets accurately diffused up. Rawls asked himself several questions including the question about how the society would get stable by the use of the principles of justice. He later came up with lecture notes containing the solutions of the above question. The lecture notes were titled Political Liberalism. In Political Liberalism, Rawls pioneered the ideas of both the public reason and overlapping consensus. The scheme of public reason dealt with the regular reason of all citizens (Freeman 2007, p. 127). The overlapping consensus told mostly about how different citizens hold different philosophical and religious