John Rawls Political Theory of Justice - Research Paper Example

Number Interdisciplinary Topic - 3 Disciplines’ Connection In Relation To John Rawls Political Theory Of Justice Research Proposal This is a research paper about a combination of disciplines. The aim is to select three disciplines and argue about their interdisciplinary nature in relation to John Rawls political theory. The main idea obtained from John Rawls’ political theory is that in politics, people have different worldviews, yet they still come together to work as one and form national laws in a politically liberal society. This is easily applicable when explaining the interrelationship between disciplines. The disciplines are also different and serve different purposes, but that can be used together to achieve one aim depending on the aim of the user. Various disciplines can for example be used in teaching, in scientific research, in management and so on. Philosophy for example, can be used to develop theories, to which science can then be used to prove the theories. These subjects are interrelated in one way or the other, and they are normally used together to solve specific problems or develop new ideas. While the main focus is on the interdisciplinary nature of three disciplines, biological, philosophical, and educational disciplines, the paper explains the political theory as postulated by John Rawls, and also explains the meaning of interdisciplinary. Brief descriptions of the three disciplines are given, then a detailed explanation of how they are interlinked given using one research study. Expanded Research Proposal It is important to explain John Rawls political theory to enhance the concept in which the research is based. Rawls theory explains how a democratic society still manages to set up an economy and run normally. In a democratic society, people have different worldviews. The people have different opinions about certain laws, they have different religious beliefs, they have different conceptions about what is ethically correct or not, they have different values and forms of interpersonal relations. Because of these differences, people will have different devotions, making it hard for them to be loyal to one law. As Rawls explains however, in a society, not everyone can have his way. There has to be a common law that guides the behaviour of everyone. For example, there have to be common laws defining what is ethically right and wrong. People have to recognize that they live in a society, making it difficult to act according to the diverse values, beliefs, and practices. It is explained in this theory that the society still manages to be stable because of the people’s ability to employ public reason to make decisions. Public reason makes them agree with a common law; for example, whether a certain religion should be accepted or not. Public reason enables the citizens to recognize the importance of a stable society, and what they need to do to achieve it. The theory argues that because there is overlapping consensus, many reasonable citizens will find a common reason to enforceable a law. This way the society will have the majority supporting different laws because of various reasons, hence a stable society. It is also indicated that people are normally coerced into accepting the national laws. Rawls indicates that such coercion cannot be accepted unless the political power behind the coercion is legitimate. Legitimacy is only achieved if coercion is guided by the ideology of a political conception of justice (Rawls 11). It is also important to explain the meaning of interdisciplinary. Interdisciplinary means many disciplines integrated together for a specific purpose. It is the integration of disciplines that makes vague the separate contribution of individual disciplines. What is important in the integration is the question to be answered. The disciplines are important insofar as they serve to answer the question. Take an example of the following two: development of an interdisciplinary rehabilitation centre and a research project that makes use of different disciplines to achieve its aim. In the case of a rehabilitation centre, it has been found that the centre helps to achieve the aim of various therapists depending on the problem being handled. A rehabilitation centre targeting patients who have suffered from stroke will have to employ speech therapists, a physical exercise expert, a nurse, a doctor, and may be a nutritionist. These requirements are dependent on the problems that accompany stroke that need to be solved. One focus here is solving health problems that patients go through after suffering from stroke. This brings together all the relevant disciplines. These disciplines present a perfect example of relating the achievement of a common goal to that of Rawls’ political theory. In this theory Rawls argues that people have different reasons for accepting one national law. A law like the right to one’s own religion can be supported because one likes prayers in a certain church, the other could be the values of the church, another could be, to be far away from home on prayer days, and another could be to take a break from work. These are not valid reasons for supporting the freedom to one’s religion but they provide an example of how diverse people’s reasons can be. In the same way, under biological discipline, there are various sub-disciplines such as; nutrition, physical exercise, medicine, speech therapy and so on. These represent the diverse disciplines that can work to achieve one aim. As presented above, these can be used to provide common healthcare services to patients (Lattuca 117). In the case of a research project, there is literature review section in which a lot of information from different disciplines is incorporated to prove the source of a hypothesis. There is the methodology section which utilizes different strategies from different disciplines. There is data analysis which makes use of statistics; a different discipline from the main project, to achieve the aim of the research (Lattucca 117). Three Disciplines Combined Combination of disciplines depends on the purpose of such a combination. In this case, illustration of interdisciplinary will be shown by analysing a research study to show the use of biological, educational, and philosophical disciplines. Such integration symbolizes Rawls political theory of justice where overlapping consensus ensures an agreement to a common national law through public reason (Rawls 213-217). Biological Disciplines Biological disciplines are natural science fields that deal with various aspects of the observable fact of life and vital processes. According to NCBI, the concept of biological discipline includes biochemistry and biophysics anatomy and physiology, and the biology of plants, animals and microorganisms. The Higher Education Academy however, indicates that biological discipline has the following sub divisions; Microbiology, Genetics, Biology, Biochemistry, Zoology, Agricultural sciences, Molecular Biology, Botany, Food and Beverage, Biophysics, Forestry and other biological sciences. It is clear that there are different subdivisions and even more can still be obtained. A field like biomedical science will be under biological science. The variety of sub divisions explains the ease of integration into other fields. Philosophical Disciplines Philosophy is defined as the critical examination of essential principles and concepts. The essential principles and concepts are those that organize people’s experiences, language and its grammar, and themes, facts, or everything that people know or think of. It is a discipline that is concerned with questions about justice, truth, reality, goodness, and meaning. The questions are endless and cannot be solved by scientific or empirical data. Philosophy also attempts to simplify, revise, and make clear these fundamental principles and concepts to clear them of ambiguities and uncertainties. Some of the philosophy exercises free the principles and concepts from conflicts with other essential concepts and principles, and from inner conflicts, to enable consistent application of the principles and concepts (Findlay 141). Philosophy contains other disciplines which include; logic, epistemology, metaphysics, political philosophy, ethics, and aesthetics. Within these disciplines there are disciplines such as the philosophy of the mind, philosophy of religion, philosophy of language, philosophy of science, philosophy of law, and many more (Findlay 143-145). Educational Disciplines Education is the process of giving information through systematic instructions. Education can be obtained from schools, conferences, organizations, and communities. Other disciplines are connected to education in that they can be used to study education, and education can be used to study hem as well. There is philosophy of education, psychology of education, sociology of education, politics of education, and the history of education. Several other disciplines can be understood through education. In this case, people would be taught various subjects, courses or skills (Barry & Will). How they achieve an interdisciplinary purpose From Rawls’ political theory of justice, there are different people with different worldviews. In this paper, one person represents one discipline. One person can have different views about different issues, but common values. Common values best represents the discipline. These various views represent the sub disciplines that can be linked to other sub-disciplines. A philosophy discipline therefore, will have different sub-disciplines that can be linked to other sub-disciplines in other disciplines. There is a compatible connection within the sub-disciplines that enable them achieve a targeted aim. These disciplines serve different purposes and the link between the sub-disciplines in dependent on the purposes for which the disciplines are brought together. Two examples have been explained above, but a clear link between the above three disciplines is still explained below. The act of conducting a research is interdisciplinary. This is because various disciplines are used in one way or the other in one study. In this paper, a study by Gorsky, Caspi, Antonovsky, Blau, and Mansur; ‘The Relationship between Academic Discipline and Dialogic Behaviour in Open University Course Forums’, is used to illustrate the integration of the three disciplines above in one study. This is a research study focused on improving the education practices. It is aimed at understanding student’s behaviour under two conditions; when in science, and when in humanities forums. The results may be used to develop new teaching practices that will encourage participation. One can ask how education discipline is involved in this research paper. The research paper itself is educative, the content is meant to improve education as a discipline. Within the content, biological sub-disciplines are utilized. An example is the use of cognitive science. The research study used the community inquiry model. This model has three dimensions; teaching presence, cognitive presence, and social presence. Cognitive presence according to the model means the ability of the participant to use sustained communication to construct meaning (Gorsky, Caspi, Antonovsky, Blau & Mansur). Knowledge of an individual’s ability to construct meaning as related to his cognitive ability can only be explained using biochemistry. This is a sub-discipline of biological discipline. In the summary section of the research, the authors give a philosophical quote; “We have to remember that what we observe is not nature herself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning” (Gorsky, Caspi, Antonovsky, Blau & Mansur). This is Heisenberg’s quote and from it, the authors expect the reader to understand the shortcomings of their research study. It means that the study does not change nature, but aligns what they have observed to a specific method of questioning. It does not mean that nature should act in such an alignment. It means there are exceptions to their study, and the reason to that is because they have no control of nature. All the three disciplines have been integrated in one study. More aspects of these disciplines can still be obtained from the study to further illustrate the relationship. It is also clear that philosophy links the other two disciplines. There is philosophy of education which focuses on analysis and clarification of questions and concepts central to education (Noddings 1). There is also philosophy of biology which focuses on disentangling chains of reasoning explaining biological results, and evaluation of broader conceptual frameworks that lead to fundamental social reasons (Sterelny & Griffiths 5). Philosophy bas a discipline can form a basis for interpreting other disciplines, or even sub-disciplines. Philosophers develop the ideas from the culture of the society. This can be compared to the ‘political conception of justice’ as required by the society to have a politically liberal society. So in this case, taking an example of philosophy of education, education will replace the liberal society. Philosophy can use sub disciplines and other smaller divisions of education to explain why they belong to the discipline. The same applies to biological discipline. Conclusion Rawls political theory can be applied in different situations depending on a philosopher’s arguments. In this case, the theory has been related to interdisciplinary subjects; biological, educational and philosophical disciplines. The connection between these disciplines is linked to the connection that people have in the society even though they have different worldviews. Various sub-disciplines and smaller divisions within the disciplines have been used to represent the worldviews. It is therefore, possible to have all these different disciplines integrated together in achieving specified goals, because they all have a specific role to play in achieving such goals. This is just like all the citizens have overlapping consensus which enables them, through public reason, to agree to one national law. Work Cited Barry, Dufour., and Will, Curtis. Studying Education: An Introduction To The Key Disciplines In Education Studies: An Introduction to the Key Disciplines in Education Studies. McGraw-Hill International, 2011. Print. Findlay, J. N. Philosophy as a discipline. The Philosophical Forum, 36, (2) 141–148, 2005. Print. Gorsky, Paul., Caspi, Avner., Antonovsky, Avishai., Blau, Ina. and Mansur, Asmahan. The Relationship between Academic Discipline and Dialogic Behavior in Open University Course Forums, International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 11, 2 (2010). Web. Retrieved from: http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/820/1546 Lattuca, Lisa, R. Creating interdisciplinarity: Interdisciplinary research and teaching among college and university faculty. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press, 2001. Print. NCBI. Biological Science Disciplines. Retrieved from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/mesh?Db=mesh&term=Biological+Science+Disciplines Noddings, Nel. Philosophy of Education: Second Edition (Large Print 16pt). Colorado: Westview Press, 2010. Print. The Higher Education Academy. Biological Sciences. Retrieved from: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/disciplines/biological-sciences Rawls, John. Political liberalism: Expanded edition. New York: Columbia University Press, 2013. Print. Sterelny, Kim. and Griffiths, Paul E. Sex and death: An introduction to philosophy of biology. London: University of Chicago Press, 1999. Print. Annotated Bibliography Barry, Dufour., and Will, Curtis. Studying Education: An Introduction To The Key Disciplines In Education Studies: An Introduction to the Key Disciplines in Education Studies. McGraw-Hill International, 2011. Print. There is information about education as a discipline and its sub-divisions. There is history about education, and the role of social movements and individuals in bringing change in education as a discipline. Findlay, J. N. Philosophy as a discipline. The Philosophical Forum, 36, (2) 141–148, 2005. Print. This reference explains Philosophy as a discipline. It describes different features of philosophy which can be used to explain how the discipline connects with other disciplines. The features are based on criticism, analysis, and clarification of principles and concepts that are used to explain fact, theme, or human experience. Gorsky, Paul., Caspi, Avner., Antonovsky, Avishai., Blau, Ina. and Mansur, Asmahan. The Relationship between Academic Discipline and Dialogic Behavior in Open University Course Forums, International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 11, 2 (2010). Web. Retrieved from: http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/820/1546 This is a research study that investigates the relationship between humanities and natural sciences, and students’ dialogic behavior. This is used as a case study to illustrate the interdisciplinary nature of the three disciplines selected. There are various sections that can be analyzed to provide relevant information. Lattuca, Lisa, R. Creating interdisciplinarity: Interdisciplinary research and teaching among college and university faculty. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press, 2001. Print. Provides necessary information for defining and concept of interdisciplinary NCBI. Biological Science Disciplines. Retrieved from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/mesh?Db=mesh&term=Biological+Science+Disciplines This gives a brief description of biological discipline and the sub-disciplines. The sub-disciplines provide more information that help in understanding the interconnection with other disciplines. Noddings, Nel. Philosophy of Education: Second Edition (Large Print 16pt). Colorado: Westview Press, 2010. Print. This book provides information about the history of philosophy of education. The first chapter however provides an insight on what philosophy of education is all about. This is important for the research for it will help in explaining the connection between philosophy and education. Rawls, John. Political liberalism: Expanded edition. New York: Columbia University Press, 2013. Print. This book provides information about awls’ political theory of justice. It explains how public reason can be used to achieve justice in a society even though people have different comprehensive doctrines. The theory explains the relationship that exists between overlapping consensus, public reason, and political conception of justice, which explains the existence of a politically liberal society. Sterelny, Kim. And Griffiths, Paul E. Sex and death: An introduction to philosophy of biology. London: University of Chicago Press, 1999. Print. This book provides important information about the relationship between philosophy and biology. It describes how relevant philosophy is in explaining human nature. It provides a logical description of the need for knowledge of both biological discipline and philosophy for people to understand their world and behaviors. The Higher Education Academy. Biological Sciences. Retrieved from: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/disciplines/biological-sciences This source only has a few biological sub-disciplines. These however, also give information about the variety of sub-disciplines that can be obtained from one discipline. Read More