Chapter 3

• Justice

  • an important part of morality (that ought to be legislated) (defined by John Stuart Mill)
• 4 Concepts Related to Justice

  1. Fairness
  2. Equality
  3. Desert
  4. Rights
• Negative Rights

  • the right to NOT have certain things done to you
• Positive Rights

  • the right to have certain things provided to you
• Distributive Justice - According to a Utilitarian (John Stuart Mill)

  • I have a right to X if and only if society recognizing that right would maximize utility
  • If the right doesn't maximize utility, then I don't have that right (even if it's legally recognized)
• 2 Rival Principles of Economic Distribution

  1. Society should reward those who try the hardest, even if they produce less than others
  2. Society ought to reward those who in fact produce more and better
• 2 Plausible Utility Maximizing Business Practices

  1. Worker Participation
  2. Greater Equality of Income

  • Diminishing marginal utility
• Distributive Justice - According to Nozick's Libertarianism

  • justice is a matter of respecting individual liberty, which means never interfering with people's Lockean Rights
  • thus you're acting unjustly if you don't respect individual liberty and violate Lockean Rights
• Lockean Rights

  • basic moral rights (named after John Locke)

  They are both:

  • negative - require that people refrain from acting in certain ways, more specifically refrain from interfering with others
  • natural - they don't depend on social/political institutions or utility
• What does Respecting Liberty Means?

  • No paternalistic legislation

  The government stepping in (like in a paternal role) to interfere with your liberty

  • No moralistic legislation
  • No taxation for the sake of economic redistribution
• Harm Principle

  • interfering with liberty is okay, if it's to prevent harm to others
• Nozick's Entitlement Theory

  1. Principle (Justice in Acquisition)
  2. Principle (Justice in Transfer)

  • Ultimate Principle
• Nozick's Entitlement Theory - 1st Principle (Justice in Acquisition)

  • one is entitled to something not currently owned, if one acquires it without violating anyone's Lockean Rights
• Nozick's Entitlement Theory - 2nd Principle (Justice in Transfer)

  • if the holdings being transferred between 2 parties were acquired justly (see first principle), then the transfer is just and the recipient is entitled to the holdings
• Nozick's Entitlement Theory - Ultimate Principle

  • X is entitled to P if and only if P was acquired by respecting the first 2 principles
• Difference Principle

  • states that inequalities are justified only if they work to benefit the least advantaged members of society
• Maximin Rule

  • choosing principles guaranteeing that the worst that could happen to you, is better than the worst that could happen to you under any other rival principles
  • you should try to maximize the minimum that you receive
  • *this is what we adopt when deciding principles of justice*
• Original Position

  • a hypothetical situation where, we self-interested rational agents, decide on the fundamental principles of justice that will govern our society
  • once an agreement is reached, these principles will be legally binding on all of us
• Primary Social Goods

  • Income
  • Wealth
  • Rights
  • Liberties
  • Opportunities
  • Status
  • Self-Respect
• How do We Justify Principles of Justice? (according to Rawls)

  To each:

  • an equal share

  To each according to:

  • what they deserve
  • what they are entitled to (Nozick)
  • their ability and their needs (Marx)
• Veil of Ignorance

  • helps eliminate bias in the decision procedure (of fundamental principles of justice), because the people in the original position, don't know about their actual situation/position in life
  • adding the veil of ignorance ensures that the original position is fair
• Why would we choose the Original Position?

  • because although we don't know our position in life due to the veil of ignorance, we'll want to secure our primary social goods
• What are the 2 Principles Rawls believes people in the Original Position would Adopt?

  1. Each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive total system of equal basic liberties compatible with a similar system of liberty for all
  2. Social and Economic inequalities must satisfy 2 conditions:

  • They attach to positions and offices open to all under conditions of fair equality of opportunity
  • Difference Principle - they benefit the least-advantaged members of society
• What makes Distribution Just? (according to Nozick)

  • any distribution is just, as long as its historical origin was just
• Distribution Patterns

  • Egalitarian
  • Merit Based (everyone gets what they deserve)
  • Needs Based
• What violates Lockean Rights?

  • redistributing holdings to fit a desired pattern or end-state
• Distributive Justice - According to Rawls (Contractualism)

  • for Rawls, the essence of justice is FAIRNESS
  • he takes seriously the separateness of persons
  • the foundation for Rawls theory of distributive justice is NOT Lockean rights but rather hypothetical social contract
  • he believes that under fair conditions, we would ALL agree to principles of justice that permit redistribution
• What is Rawls stance on Utilitarianism?

  Agrees:

  • that economic inequalities are justifiable

  Disagrees:

  • that it's justifiable to place the burdens on the economically disadvantaged as a sacrifice for the greater good since that would be UNFAIR
• What is Rawls stance on Libertarianism? (Nozick)

  • Rawls argues that libertarians like Nozick are too narrowly focused on individual transactions
  • Rawls thinks that the focus of distributive/economic justice should be on the larger context of social institutions and the benefits and burdens attached to its various offices