John Rawls Philosophy

Fall Semester 2022

Micheal Sandal

Moral Philosphy

___

Notes

How should income, wealth, and power and opportunities be distributed?

John Rawls isn’t a utilitarian. He thinks that, “Behind the vail of ignorance, everyone knows that once the veil goes up and real life begins, we will each want to be respected, with dignity.” “Even if we turn out to be a member of a minority, we don’t want to be oppressed, and so we would agree to reject utialtarianism and to instead adopt, as our first principle, equal basic liberties.”

• “We could do better if we agree to a qualified principle of equality.”

  • Rawls calls it the difference principle.

  • Rawls main argument for the difference principle would be is that it would be chosen before the vail of ignorance.

  • He also argues that distribution of wealth and opportunities shouldn’t be factors taht are arbitrary from a moral point of view.

  • Views on meritocracy: “But it sill permits the distribution of wealth and income to be determined by the natural distribution of abilities and talents.”

John Rawls believes that you encourage the gifted to exercise their talents but what you do is change the terms in which the people are entitled to the fruit of the exercise of those talents. So example, Micheal Jordan can only make 31 million dollars can make that money without taxes, and Bill Gates can’t think he morally deserves those billions.

Summary

• John Rawls wants to live in a society where oppressed people actively benefit from talented people exercising their talents. Rawls thinks that even the effort that people’s effort depends a lot on fortune and family circumstances. Even things as birth order can determine people’s inherent work ethic.