{"id":83943,"date":"2022-11-15T18:44:00","date_gmt":"2022-11-15T22:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=83943"},"modified":"2022-11-23T14:43:11","modified_gmt":"2022-11-23T18:43:11","slug":"rawlsian-theory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/rawlsian-theory\/","title":{"rendered":"Rawlsian Theory of Justice: The Original Position"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What is the Rawlsian approach to justice? How does Rawls&#8217;s conception of justice differ from Immanuel Kant&#8217;s? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>John Rawls conceptualizes justice entirely in terms of reason. However, unlike Kant, who appeals to universal moral laws, Rawls focuses entirely on how a group of equally competent and entirely rational individuals would organize society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keep reading to learn about Rawlsian theory of justice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-original-position\"><strong>The Original Position<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/america-in-the-20th-century\/\">20th-century American<\/a> philosopher John Rawls tries to define justice in a way that he says <em>any<\/em> rational and self-interested person could agree with. To that end, Rawls creates a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/philosophical-thought-experiments\/\">thought experiment<\/a> he calls <strong>\u201cthe original position.\u201d<\/strong> In the original position, everyone comes together as rational, self-interested equals to debate the definition of justice until they find one that everyone agrees with. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this hypothetical, people don\u2019t know the specific circumstances of their lives\u2014things like wealth, religion, race, sexuality, and so on. This means people will argue for terms that apply fairly to <em>everyone<\/em> regardless of their circumstances. For example, in the original position, Tom doesn\u2019t know how wealthy he is. Therefore, he won\u2019t argue for terms that benefit the rich at the expense of the poor\u2014for all he knows, <em>he\u2019s<\/em> poor (or could become poor).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rawls suggests that the original position results in two terms (or something similar to them):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Everyone has guaranteed basic individual rights.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/li><li><strong>Inequalities of power and money can exist, but only when they benefit the less fortunate (and the least fortunate most of all).<\/strong><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>Term one ensures that nobody will be oppressed or denied freedoms for the benefit of others. Term two ensures that people <em>can<\/em> get ahead socially or economically, but not at the expense of leaving other people behind to suffer. Much like Kant, Rawls\u2019s rules are universal\u2014he believes that they can justly resolve any political question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>Rawls and the Development of Modern Liberalism<\/strong><br><br>Rawlsian theory shows how liberalism evolved as it became the dominant global ideology in the late 20th century. He discusses two core tenets of modern liberalism:&nbsp;<br><br><a href=\"https:\/\/shortform.com\/app\/book\/how-democracies-die\/chapter-5#mutual-toleration-and-institutional-forbearance\"><strong>1. Government institutions must strive to be value-neutral<\/strong><\/a>\u2014liberals say government institutions (elections, courts, and so on) shouldn\u2019t have specific political or ideological ends. Rawls\u2019s original position follows this tenet, claiming that people <em>unaware<\/em> of their circumstances and beliefs would create the <em>most<\/em> just government institutions.&nbsp;<br><br><a href=\"https:\/\/shortform.com\/app\/book\/capitalism-and-freedom\/chapter-1\"><strong>2. Private individuals should own capital and means of production<\/strong><\/a>\u2014liberals disagree on how much the government should <em>regulate<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/capitalism-theory\/\">capitalism<\/a>, but they all agree that it should exist. Rawls\u2019s defense of wealth inequality follows this tenet by claiming that it <em>can<\/em> be just for some people to own more than others.)<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is the Rawlsian approach to justice? How does Rawls&#8217;s conception of justice differ from Immanuel Kant&#8217;s? John Rawls conceptualizes justice entirely in terms of reason. However, unlike Kant, who appeals to universal moral laws, Rawls focuses entirely on how a group of equally competent and entirely rational individuals would organize society. Keep reading to learn about Rawlsian theory of justice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":71750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,21],"tags":[804],"class_list":["post-83943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ethics","category-philosophy","tag-justice","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Rawlsian Theory of Justice: The Original Position - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Philosopher John Rawls tried to define justice in a way that any rational individual would agree with. 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Read about Rawlsian theory of justice.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/rawlsian-theory\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-11-15T22:44:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-11-23T18:43:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/woman-thinking-looking-up.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1738\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1128\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/rawlsian-theory\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/rawlsian-theory\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\"},\"headline\":\"Rawlsian Theory of Justice: The Original Position\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-11-15T22:44:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-11-23T18:43:11+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/rawlsian-theory\/\"},\"wordCount\":449,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/rawlsian-theory\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/woman-thinking-looking-up.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Justice\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Ethics\",\"Philosophy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/rawlsian-theory\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/rawlsian-theory\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/rawlsian-theory\/\",\"name\":\"Rawlsian Theory of Justice: The Original Position - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/rawlsian-theory\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/rawlsian-theory\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/woman-thinking-looking-up.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-11-15T22:44:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-11-23T18:43:11+00:00\",\"description\":\"Philosopher John Rawls tried to define justice in a way that any rational individual would agree with. 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