Questions tagged [rawls]
John Rawls (1921 - 2002) was an American philosopher.
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How is Rawls's "liberalism" reasonably classified as liberal by this SEP article?
According to this Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article...
Given that liberalism fractures on so many issues — the nature of
liberty, the place of property and democracy in a just society, the
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What does Rawls mean by a "day of reckoning"?
The quote (I don't remember where exactly in AToJ it is):
But we must try to postpone the day of reckoning as long as possible, and try to arrange society so that it never comes.
I think it was past ...
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Are there any well-grounded moral systems that can't be manipulated to justify whatever decision its acceptant wishes?
In §26 of A Theory of Justice (1999 ed.), Rawls writes:
A problem of choice is well-defined only if the alternatives are suitably restricted by natural laws and other constraints, and those deciding ...
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Should a deontic logic informed by Rawlsian/Arendtian considerations use plural quantifiers?
In A Theory of Justice (1999 ed., pg. 24), Rawls says:
The nature of the decision made by the ideal legislator is not, therefore, materially different from that of an entrepreneur deciding how to ...
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Criticism to the premise of arbitrariness of moral desert in Rawls
I am aware of several criticisms to Rawls's redistributive mechanics in A Theory of Justice. I am wondering whether there are also criticisms on the premise of arbitrariness of moral desert.
I have ...
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Rawls' phrase "well-ordered society"
Given Rawls' near-constant recourse to mathematical examples and analogies in AToJ, what are the chances that his talk of well-ordered societies is to be understood in part in terms of well-ordered ...
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How would you apply John Rawls "Theory of justice" to everyday decisions?
How can I apply John Rawls theory of justice to everyday decision making?
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How to convince an anti-rawlsian of the pertinence of the "veil of ignorance" condition?
My question is not about the contractarian methodology adopted by Rawls, but specfically about the "veil of ignorance" condition.
How to articulate precisely the moral intuition that is ...
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Which distribution is allowed by Rawls's difference principle?
Let's say we have the following different distributions of monetary wealth possible for a society. Here, LAG := Least Advantaged Group, OG := Ordinary group, MAG := Most Advantaged Group.
Type
LAG
OG
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Moral constructivism and intuitionistic logic
What with all the times Rawls uses mathematics examples in AToJ, such as the guy who counts blades of grass for fun and survives by solving math problems for a fee, or π being transcendental, or the ...
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Is Kant's concept of radical evil an epistemic notion?
One interpretation of the moment in Kant's presentation on "radical" (fundamental) "evil" where he asserts the universality of the predicate, vs. humanity, is that being finite is ...
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How can one argue against income inequality while defending achievement and expertise inequality - beyond invoking Rawls' difference principle?
Update: Based on some of the comments and answers, I feel like I need to clarify something. I wasn't saying that scientists and intellectuals are necessarily the ones making millions of dollars a year ...
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How would luck egalitarianism deal with AI and automatisation in production?
Mainstream theories of justice, particularly luck egalitarianism, accept that the "good fortune," the goods that result from endowments, not from choice or effort, be redistributed to aid those ...
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Would Rawls accept fair trade as a fair/just organization?
If we use John Rawl's concept of justice based on "A Theory of Justice" on the organisation/institution of Fair Trade, what would our results be? Would Rawls perceive Fair Trade as a fair/just ...
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How to argue that some inequality is justifiable in order to maximize the well-being of the worst off in Rawls's theory of justice?
In context, I have to describe what we think is a just society by Rawls theory of justice. I want to try and use Scandinavia, for example, the Nordic Model as a representation as a just society. ...
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Is brain reward hacking immoral?
Consider the following scenarios, each of which at their core refer to a form of 'reward hacking'.
Based on personal observation, each scenario below generally elicits an immediate, visceral feeling ...
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Reconciling Utilitarianism and Rawls's Theory of Justice as Fairness
I will argue that John Stuart Mill's greatest happiness principle (GHP) should be revised to avoid problematic implications and to better fit humans' intuitive sense of morality. Furthermore, the ...
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Why do some actions contain normative implications and some do not
Off the bat, my specific question is actually if someone can point me to the philosophic domain of inquiry which deals with the above question.
In context, I am doing a paper on Rawls. Joseph Raz ...
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What did Rawls mean: "rewarding moral desert as a first principle would be like having the institution of property to punish thieves"?
Justice: A Beginner's Guide (2017)
by Raymond Wacks. p. 68.
` More disparaging is the assertion that Rawls fails to offer a theory of justice
at all! According to certain critics, justice ...
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Understanding Rawls and Nozick
Am I correct in thinking that Rawls and Nozick both offer theories of justice and that both allow for differences in the distribution of wealth ? If they agree in this, what is the decisive divergence ...
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DIFFERENCE PRINCIPLE DEFINED by Rawls vs Nozick
I currently started reading Rawls and Nozick. I have found out that Nozick's "Distributive Justice" is a libertarian analysis of John Rawls. I was wondering if anyone knows what Nozick's opinion is on ...
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How can Rawls' justified inequality not be equality?
I am having some trouble trying to understand how that what Rawls allows as "inequality", i.e. a difference justified by gains for everyone, is inequal at all. If it results in gains for everyone, is ...
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Why do people quote Ayn Rand so much on this forum when she clearly wasn't into philosophy?
Ayn Rand was not a philosopher and Objectivism is not some collection of philosophical arguments. Even by her own admission, she was opposed to philosophy as a field. Her work is predominantly a ...
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How does Rawls defend himself from skepticism?
How does Rawls defend himself from skepticism?
I know most philosophers try to defend their philosophical ideologies against skepticism by presenting requirements for what philosophical ethical ...
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Can one conceive history as "one body"? Are there "fixed" concepts or ideas that define cultural relativity?
Ideologies can be thought to be sometimes perceived as being an "unified" body of historical information. A sort of body that reflects how an individual or a group will come to perceive the current ...
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Why is John Rawls taken more seriously than Ayn Rand?
I just listened to a lecture on ethics and justice, and John Rawls' "a theory of justice" was presented as the most significant work of political philosophy in recent times. The lecturer then went on ...
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How might you apply John Rawls' theory of justice as fairness to the issue of privacy and security?
I'm a bit confused about how to apply John Rawls' theory of Justice as Fairness to the issue of privacy/security. Which statement below is correct?
Justice as Fairness does not justify a decrease in ...
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Rawls and the Categorical Imperative
Rawls A Theory of Justice according to Wikipedia, and by his own admission is 'strongly Kantian'.
A foundational point or axiom is his 'Veil of Ignorance' - the original position.
How can this ...
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What does "deliberation" usually mean in John Rawls' theory of justice?
“Deliberation” can mean a long careful consideration or be used to describe a process of interaction between various subject. When being used in the second sense, it refers to a crucial component of ...
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What kind of paradoxes might result from applying the maximin principle in a scheme of distributive justice?
I quote from John Harsanyi "Can the Maximin Principle Serve as a Basis for Morality?
A Critique of John Rawls's Theory" (1975) (My italics).
But then came a growing realization that the maximin ...
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Can Rawls justify eugenics?
Rawls seems partial to the idea of eugenics, as perhaps this is the corollary of the difference principle. Am I correct in this understanding? I refer to p.92 of A Theory of Justice (1999):
In the ...
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Is justice a zero-sum game?
I'm studying Rawls and the notion of justice being a zero-sum game has been a recurring, underlying question.
His theory seems to suggest that justice works in this way, however I wonder if there are ...
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The Welfare state and the compromise between liberty and equality
The real question i am concerned with, linking the titular themes is: 1. Can a welfare state be organised that does not impose so many constraints on liberty, in the name of equality, that those ...
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Is Nozick's Criticism of Rawls correct?
When Nozick says distributive justice 'marks a shift from the classical liberal notion of self ownership to a notion of property rights in others', is this a fair criticism of Rawls and distributive ...
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What are prominent attacks of Rawls' "veil of ignorance" argument? Which liberal philosophers have advanced it?
In John Rawls' A Theory of Justice, he argues that morally, society should be constructed politically as if we were all behind a veil of ignorance; that is, the rules and precepts of society should be ...
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