RAWLS Flashcards
Why Rawls thinks societies with caste systems or racial apartheid are unjust
Just because they restrict social positions one can occupy are based on factors beyond the individual control. we don’t want social positions chosen by just luck
Rawls: the principle of fair equality of opportunity
everyone should have a fair chance to attain desirable social positions no matter your social class, natural talents, character, and family background
Principles of a just society according to Rawls
the principle of fair equality of opportunity, liberty, difference principle, and incentive inequalities
Rawls: difference principle
inequalities exist in society only if they benefit the less fortunate
Rawls: incentive inequalities
if a waitress made the same as a doctor, there would be no desire to go to medical school
Economic equalitarianism
Frankfort thinks this is mistaken - morally desirable for people to have the same amount of money, everyone should have a fair chance to attain desirable social positions, economic inequalities are not bad in and of themselves
Utilitarianism argument for economic equalitarianism
Declining marginal utility, the state should maximize utility of money invariably diminishes at the margins. Assumptions:
a. for each individual the utility of money invariable diminishes at the margins
b. with respect to money, everyones utility functions are the same
Frankfort disagrees with this due to not everyone having the same utility function
Why Frankfort thinks that there is more to living a satisfying life than being concerned with how much money you have relative to others
Frankfort thought it contributes to shallowness and moral disorientation of our lives
Patterned theories of justice
one can tell whether a distribution is just simply by looking at it
Why Nozick doesn’t like patterned theories of Justice
Liberty (involving choice) disrupts patterns
How Nozick would answer the equation, does justice require equality
Justice does not require equality, strong equality requires economic eqalitarianism
Historical entitlement view
a distribution is just if everyone is entitled to the holdings they possess. if something is stolen, then it is unjust
What Nozick would say about the doctrine of sufficiency
he doesn’t like it. He doesn’t like any patterned theories of justice. Only way to maintain distribution is by interviewing with peoples choices. if you make it so everyone has enough, you will lose that pattern and distribution, people will start making choices
