Rawls Justice as Fairness: a Political Conception - Term Paper Example

John Rawls’ political liberalism is one of the several approaches use in determining the connection between the individual and the state while taking into account the reality of pluralism and diversity of worldviews that frames the social life of the individual. In the face of this reality, one cannot maintain the position of indifference towards the state and assert that as “long as the vast terrain of social relationships and communities existing alongside the individual… the state is not taken into account” (Chaplin, 1994, p. 81). This is simply denying the veracity of the public domain as compose of people with different perspectives and world views, but nonetheless, capable of some forms of social cooperation, which in itself, is problematic (Lehning, 1998).

   In this regard, this paper will undertake a critical evaluation of political liberalism to justify “justice as fairness” as a political conception. To achieve this, the paper will be divided into eight sections. Each section will be dealing with critical concepts that are essential to clarify the issue being raised in this research. The first section is the introduction wherein the reader is introduced to the subject and structure of the research. This section serves as a guide as to what may be expected from the entire paper.

The second part will provide a brief explication of “justice as fairness”. This helps in knowing Rawls’ conception of justice. Likewise, it serves as a platform in understanding how Rawls’ political liberalism justifies “justice as fairness” as a political conception. The third part deals with the notion of comprehensive views. This will look into the private-individual and public divide. This will assist in clarifying the relationship between “reasonable comprehensive views” and the idea of conception as discussed by Rawls.

The fourth segment will take a more thorough look on comprehensive views and the notion of overlapping consensus. These two doctrines are central in understanding the pluralist’s condition that forms the basic concern of Rawls, “How is it possible for there to exist over time a just and stable society of free and equal citizens, who remain profoundly divided by reasonable religious, philosophical, and moral doctrines” (Rawls, 1993, p xxvii). The fifth segment will deal with the reasonable comprehensive views and political conception.

This part will look into the possible connection between the two concepts.