LIBERALISM - Key Thinkers Rawls and Flashcards
Key work
A Theory of Justice 1971
Explain the Thought Experiment that Rawls envisioned
The Original Position - hypothetical position where we have no ide what position we will be born into.
This is through the hypothetical thought experiment.
We use the veil of ignorance, which conceals our current social position from use, so that it cannot influence our decision.
No rational individual, would take the risk of potentially being in a worse off position than we already are, and so we would choose to create a society where everyone has a more equal chance of living a fulfilling and enriching life.
Enabling State definition
The enabling state was one that extended its activities to liberate individuals from restrictive social and economic problems, hence, enabling them to fulfil their potential
The concept of justice as fairness
The priority in establishing a just and fair society, he insisted, was to ease the social and economic condition of the most deprived members and to help them exploit their individual potential and to achieve control of their lives.
What two principles of justice must an Enabling State be reliant on?
*Define the difference principle
- INDIVIDUALS MUST HAVE THE SAME SET OF ABSOLUTE LIBERTIES.
- SOME INEQUALITIES ARE INEVITABLE, BUT THERE MUST BE A PRIORITY TO HELP THE DISADVANTAGED. (Difference Principle) - changed to inequality must only be allowed when those changes benefit the least well-off.
Key idea: Human Nature
He recognised that humans can be selfish and can value individual freedom but can also be altruistic.
He agreed with the basic liberal view that humans are rational and built his Theory of Justice on this principle.
In his work, he justifies the enabling state by suggesting that it would be the inevitable choice of the vast majority of rational humans, if they were to put the influence of their personal circumstances aside, by making choices behind the veil of ignorance.
Key idea: Society
Rawls stated that a fair and just society should be based on the principle that everyone is entitled to the widest possible liberty consistent with a like liberty for all.
This endorses the positive freedom principle that had been developed by T.H Green, where each individual can achieve self-realisation. This is based on a commitment to a society that has a realistic level of equality of opportunity in practice, not only in theory.
Key idea: State
Rawls supported the liberal view that a state is necessary to uphold justice and it should operate under a consensual constitution of the people.
He uses an adaptation of social contract theory (established by Locke) to argue that an enabling state would be the kind of state that the rational individuals would choose if they could put their personal circumstances aside.
This assists developmental individualism, through increased spending on expanded publish services. This differs from the minimal state promoted by the classic liberals.
Key idea: Economy
Rawls was a liberal, not a socialist.
He did not support equality of outcome but maintained that the greatest disadvantages suffered by many individuals in free-market capitalism, though productive and efficient, needed to be controlled by some state intervention and some redistribution of wealth via an enabling state, in order to benefit the most disadvantaged.
This maintained the difference principle and produced a smaller level of inequality in the economy.
Tolerance
‘Society must tolerate the intolerance, for otherwise, the society would then itself be intolerant, and thus unjust’
Justice
Rawls argued that core liberal principle of foundational equality, meant that individuals required not just formal equality under the law and constitution, but also greater social and economic equality.
Rawls argued that this was necessary, to ensure a just society, where all lives could be fulfilled
Freedom and the individual
T.H Green and John Rawls took these ideas further to embrace a positive form of freedom – Green stated that freedom is not just to be left alone but to be a positive force to assist and encourage all individuals to have a real chance to fulfil their potential.
Modern liberals agree that individuals should be self-reliant, but some individuals are poor then they need a hand.
Positive freedom levels up the playing field, so that individuals can enjoy equality.
Green’s ideas provided preliminary groundwork for UK’s post-WW2 Welfare State
Equality of Opportunity
Rawls and Mill, do not believe in equal opportunity of outcome, or that living standards should be the same for everyone.
This is undesirable because each individual possesses different talents, and some are prepared to work harder than others.
However, Rawls believes in the difference principle and that equality of opportunity can only be achieved if material inequalities are relatively narrow.
