Justice as Fairness, Reflective Equilibrium, and Veil of Ignorance by Rawls - Essay Example

Introduction John Bordley Rawls (1921-2002) was a famous American political philosopher and is considered an important figure in the areas of moral and political philosophy. He is accredited for a number of rewards and achievements which include the James Bryant Conant University Professorship at Harvard. Amongst his works, he is most famous for his A Theory of Justice (1971) which is regarded as a primary text in political philosophy. Apart from this, he has conducted a number of thought experiments related to determining principles of social justice. He is also considered one of the leading thinkers in the tradition of liberal political philosophy. Biography of Rawls Rawls was born in Baltimore, Maryland to William Lee Rawls and Anna Abell Stump. He spent his early childhood in Baltimore and went to school there before being transferred to Kent School. With his father a well-known lawyer and his mother a chapter president of the League of Women Voters, Rawls had a strong inclination towards education and it became evident that he would enter a scholarly field. Rawls first went to Princeton to study and after graduating in 1939 he became a member of The Ivy Club. At Princeton, he developed major interest for theology and its doctrines. In 1943, after completing a bachelor’s degree in Arts, he joined the Army. His had his first professorial responsibilities at Cornell and MIT. In 1962 he became a faculty member at Harvard, where his teaching tenure lasted for more than thirty years. With such a family background, Rawls’s adult life was a scholarly one with the major portion spent on his writings. However, during this period he also witnessed World War II and the Vietnam conflict which had a deep influence on him. During World War II, he was appointed as a soldier in the Pacific, where he visited Philippines, and Japan. After witnessing the effects of the nuclear bombings in Hiroshima, Rawls decided to quit the army in 1946. He had a strong faith in Christianity and wanted to study priesthood but, after witnessing Holocaust, his faith weakened. The Vietnam conflict compelled Rawls to identify the defects in the political system of US. He considered the war to be unjust and conveyed as to how citizens could have no say in the government’s aggressive policies. Rawls was married to Margaret Fox in 1949, who was a Brown University graduate. Overview of Rawls' philosophy Rawls is famous for his remarkable contributions to liberal political philosophy. His ideas have received wide attention and appreciation. Amongst them, the most famous ones are: Justice as Fairness Rawls used Justice as Fairness as a phrase to refer to his theory of justice. It appeared as a title to one of his essays in 1958 on the same subject. The theory consists of two parts: Firstly, all citizens have an equal right to basic liberty which should be compatible for others. This is also known as the equal liberty principle. Secondly, if there are social and economic inequalities in the society, they should be eliminated by providing fair and equal opportunity to everyone for positions in offices and the society should work to benefit the least privileged members. Both these theories aim at making justice widespread in the society and bridging the gap of social inequality. The original position The original position refers to a hypothetical situation proposed by John Rawls as part of a thought experiment. He did that to change the imagery of a savage state of nature which prior political philosophers like Thomas Hobbes had proposed. In that social contract theory, people in the state of nature agree to the principles in a contract which defines the basic rights and responsibilities of citizens in a civil society. In contrast to that, Rawls, in Justice of Fairness, proclaims that the original position plays a role that the state of nature does in the classical social contract tradition that other philosophers like Thomas Hobbes and John Locke had conveyed. The original position appears predominantly in his book, A Theory of Justice, and is considered one of the most influential ideas of twentieth-century in terms of philosophy. It has already influenced a number of thinkers from various backgrounds and philosophical spectrums. Reflective equilibrium This refers to a state of balance or unity among a set of values which can be arrived at by a process of deliberative collective adjustment among general principles and judgments. Philosopher Nelson Goodman had initially introduced the method of reflective equilibrium as a means to justify the principles of inductive logic. Rawls, however, then coined this word and made it popular in A Theory of Justice. He considered this as a method for reaching the content of the principles of justice. Veil of Ignorance The veil of ignorance is a concept introduced which Rawls introduced in A Theory of Justice. He considers this as a method of reaching to the morality of a certain issue (e.g. slavery). This is achieved by stressing upon the principle of imagining that societal roles were completely modified and redistributed, and that from behind your veil of ignorance you have no knowledge of what role you will be reassigned. Only then a person can truly conclude the morality of an issue. The veil of ignorance became part of the long tradition of thinking in context of a social contract. Philosophers like Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Jean Jacques Rousseau did further research on this tradition. It also has its roots in and refers to some of the critiques of the widespread ethical idea of The Golden Rule. The connection of his philosophy to communication ethics Rawls theory was not a group of abstract ideas which could not be implemented or be associated with the present social and political conditions. He himself used his ideas to address towards social problems and indicated how these problems could be solved using the theories he proposed. For instance, the veil of ignorance serves as a great guideline on how to tackle with complex social issues such as slavery. As a case study to that, the issues amongst the whites and the blacks southern United States, prior to the Civil War, can be studied in the light of this theory. The whites did not condone slavery, but, according to Rawls, had they considered going behind the veil of ignorance and eliminating all the existing roles in the society, they would not consider re-living as slaves themselves. The theory has its root in the desire to bring about social equality and justice, a principle which features in almost all of Rawls’s works. By applying this principle, he clearly disregarded slavery. The same theory could also be applied to study other issues in the society such as gender inequality or religious discrimination. The important principle here is to completely eliminate all the existing roles and preconceived notions including the ones which are an integral part of a person. This way, “no one knows his place in society, his class position or social status; nor does he know his fortune in the distribution of natural assets and abilities, his intelligence and strength, and the like" (Rawls, A Theory of Justice). In this way, no person knows what his status is going to be in the imaginary society. He is not guaranteed to be intelligent, wealthy or belong to an upper class. As a result, the person may occupy any position in the society once the ‘veil is lifted’. References Fiss, Owen. The Best of All Games - John Rawls. 15 May 2010 . Rawls, John. A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1971. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. John Rawls. 25 March 2008. 15 May 2010 . Read More