Essay on John Rawls: “Original Position”

Rawls strive to determine how we can make a society as just as possible. Rawls derives two principles; liberty principle and the difference principle. He also gives a theoretical device that he calls “the original position” and “the veil of ignorance” this device is meant to help us in the way that we picture our self behind a veil. We do not know the basic things about ourselves like our sex, age, financial status etc. This device is to help us be totally neutral in the sense that we do not know our status in society. After putting our self in a status quo if you will, we can now decide on what us just for the whole society. Rawls derives then the difference principle. To put this is Rawls own words, the difference principle is: “Then the difference principle is a strongly egalitarian conception in the sense that unless there is a distribution that makes both persons better off an equal distribution is to be preferred

In this hypothetical situation he explained that “although all act out of self-interest, no one will be able to “stack the deck” by fashioning rules that promotes his or hers personal advantage, because no one would know what is his or hers personal advantage” (Ball et al, 2004. pg. 79). As such the vail in itself produced a form of neutrality, forcing the individual into a social contract agreement. Rawl’s concluded that through reason they arrived at two essential principles in order to guide their society. The first principle is justice, meaning everyone has equal freedom and the second principle is equal opportunities for all. He claims that in a just society nothing should be subject to any political or social bargaining.

Rawls view of human nature assumes everyone makes decisions based on self-interest alone, while making a rational account to the available information around, such as the probability of events and the cost and benefits of those actions based on those events. An example would be skipping a lecture. You would decide if the extra sleep is worth the missed material. In answer to fix our self-interest, John Rawls had introduced the concept of Justice as Fairness, which focuses that everyone has the right to both liberty and equality. His libertarian principles focus on “quality in the assignment of basic rights and duties” while his equalitarian principles focus on “wealth and authority … only if they result in compensating benefits for everyone” (Rawls 12). His views of equality are based on everyone’s ability to cooperate, with the “advantages” of equality attracting everyone, even the less situated. (Rawls 13).

John Rawls was an America philosopher whose idea was to develop an experiment for individuals to seek a fair notion of justice. Rawls experiment was a hypothetical one that engaged the individual to look at society and fairness from another perceptive. Individuals were to use their imagination and pretend that they were born into different lives, for example, if their mother was a single parent that worked two jobs just to put food on the table vs. the lavish life style one lives today. Society isn’t just, but if the individuals didn’t know their position or their background it could eliminate discrimination and give rise for equal opportunity for all. Rawls believed in the notion of the social contract theory, if everyone was in agreement they could form a sustainable society. Rawls proposed the government could possibly work for everyone, under these pretenses. Rawls had two key principles which focused on

According to Turner (2015), John Rawls, an American moral and political philosopher, argued that some practices justified on utilitarian grounds are constituted by certain rules and that the decision of decision-makers must therefore be determined by those rules if they are to remain with the given practice. Some rules of the justified practice may themselves provide a measure of latitude to individuals not to follow or enforce the rules of the practice in certain circumstances, but that it would transform the relevant practice to grant decision-makers the discretion to appeal directly to utilitarian consideration in deciding what to do in each individual case (Turner, 2015). John Rawls believed that the decisional authority of the decision-makers

2) Rawls and the Original Position To understand the concerns for the disabled in Rawls original position, it is necessary to understand the general concepts behind the theory. The original position is a hypothetical situation brought on by Rawls that serves as an alternative to the “state of nature” idea of life. This idea lacks any type of political boundaries and falls into a savage state where we are driven by our primal instincts. In the original position, the parties chosen to select principles that will determine the basic structure of the society that they and others will reside, must be free, equal and independent persons.

Rawls is a well-known philosopher, for his significant thought experiments and one of the most important philosophical tools is "veil of ignorance”. Where he proposed this principle or lets say method to determine the morality of a particular situation based on ignorance of some things .As he asks us to imagine a dramatic scenario on how a person wants to organize or even would want a society, if the person were placed in what Rawls call it the original position. Within this position the future citizens or people wouldn’t know yet which part they are playing, what kind of position they will occupy, what are their talents within the society or their upcoming society, where they must design their roles and attributes that will be reassigned

Rawls’ famous thought experiment, the original position, tasks an arbitrary group of players with formulating a set of principles of distributive justice. According to Rawls, this hypothetical set of principles would dictate a just distribution of primary goods and duties in society, such as the right to free speech and property rights, as well as obligations like paying taxes and following laws. If every individual in this arbitrary group can agree on these distributive principles, then the principles are deemed just.

Rawls first and most important principle claims that every individual has an equal right to basic freedoms and liberties. Though, Rawls classifies certain liberties and rights as more basic, henceforth more important, along with stating that basic liberties are inalienable and untouchable by governments. This, protects individuals through claiming legitimacy to their rights from this contract and states that they are unremovable from citizens. Being compatible with the liberties of others, the bare essential basic liberties of individuals in Rawls ideology includes freedom of speech and assembly, religion, freedom of personal property, political liberties such as voting and running for office, and lastly freedom from arbitrary arrest. Next off. Rawls Equality principle establishes distributive justice, meaning a just reallocation of goods throughout society concerning societal economic inequalities, regarding available quantities. This principle discerns fairness with reference to how costs and

In A Theory of Justice John Rawls presents his argument for justice and inequality. Rawls theorizes that in the original position, a hypothetical state where people reason without bias, they would agree to live in a society based on two principles of justice (Rawls 1971, 4). These two principles of justice are named the first and second principles. The first is the equal rights and liberties principle. The second is a combination of the difference principle and the fair equality of opportunity principle, or FEOP (Rawls 1971, 53). Rawls argues that inequality will always be inevitable in any society (Rawls 1971, 7). For example, there will always be a varied distribution of social and economic advantages. Some people will be wealthier than

As continued with the previous thought it has been perceived that in cooperative societies, all individuals want to share the benefits of their efforts. Rawls argues that these societies face a problem in just how to justify and distribute those benefits, because each individual wants to maximize his or her share. He tries to solve this problem by formulating a definition of justice that adequately and fairly distributes resources to those who are involved in the creation of the resources by taking into account their role as a person and their role in society. The first step in formulating his answer is a critique of classic utilitarianism which is described as “the greatest happiness” and according to Rawls, inadequate concept of justice that it provides. ("Understanding John Rawls: Justice as Fairness (sample).")

John Rawls' "A Theory of Justice" has long been revered as a marvel of modern political philosophy. It's most well-known for the two principles of justice outlined by Rawls: (1) that all persons have an equal right to liberty; and (2) that (a) all inequalities in society should be arranged to benefit the least advantages, and (b) that all positions and offices should be open and accessible as outlined by fair equality of opportunity. Rawls' conception of society, as a "co-operative venture for mutual gain", forms the basis for both principles, and he is at all times concerned with creating a stable concept of fair and just society. Rawls' second principle, dealing with distributive justice and equality

John Rawls states that the principle of fairness is important as it applies to individuals the principle of fairness are a link between the two principles of social or political justice and individual obligations to comply with specific social practices (Pogge, 2007). By expanding the scope of what one considers to be an ‘end’ to include both aspects of nature as well as future generations, one can transform the implications of Rawls’ theory (Pogge, 2007). Rawls advances his theory of justice through what is called the Original Position which is a hypothetical situation in which all individuals are granted perfect equality and are asked to choose a principle of justice behind a veil of ignorance, which eliminates their biases (Pogge, 2007). The hypothetical persons in the Original Position, ignorant of who and what they will be in society and perfectly equal to one another, are able to truly come to a consensus as to what a just society would be (Pogge, 2007). Justice

According to Rawls, distribution of X is just only if it occurs in a society governed by the Equal Basic Liberties Principle, Fair Equality of Opportunity Principle, and the Difference Principle (DP). Rawls’ theorisation of these principles was in response to Utilitarianism. Because utilitarians only seek to maximise total satisfaction in society, it does not matter how satisfaction is distributed among individuals. If maximising total happiness in society depends upon exploiting and impoverishing others, this is just under the principle of utility. Rawls objects, stating: "utilitarianism does not take seriously the distinction between persons", thus formulating a new theory of liberal justice, promoting protection of minorities and fostering a focus on individuals.

John Rawls, was Born 1921 – 2002, Rawls guideline of value was gotten from his youth, he grew up around awesome destitution in the United States from an extraordinarily young age and around WW2, he expected to change the "uncalled for" world he was living in so Rawls made his Theory of Justice. Rawls fathomed this world was unmerited and expected to make offset. Earn back the original investment with crucial flexibilities is the first standard where each individual has a proportionate right to the most wide total plan of fundamental opportunities great with an equivalent