Ethics @ AIP: John Rawls & Michael Walzer

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Reading Notes

Reading philosophical essays is more challenging in that you often have to scan once, read once, and review once before you can adequately explain the author's position. In order to be sure that you are receiving maximum benefit from your time spent studying, try to answer the guide questions posed below. If you cannot answer them, it is time to read or review to be sure you understand the main arguments presented. See more tips here.

John Rawls & Michael Walzer: Deontology & The Social Contract

1. Resources
2. Terms to Learn
3. Concepts
4. Guide Questions
5. Smartboard Notes

Rawls, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights & The Social Contract

Here are some web sites that will enhance your understanding of this week's reading:

• Rawls' "original position" entry from the Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy
• The Universal Declarations of Human Rights
• The New York Times Series on class mobility. This is an eye opener for anyone who thinks the American Dream is easy to achieve.

Some Interesting Data:

• Gapminder.org: An awesome site to explore global trends and statistics; U.S. stats here too!
• Hans Rosling on Ted Com discussing poverty & global trends:
• Rosling on global trends one year earlier:

Concepts & Terms to Know:

Objectives for this week: These are the learning objectives you should have mastered after attending the lectures and completing the questions below

1. Explain the concepts represented by the nine specialized terms below.
2. Identify the ways in which the original position and veil of ignorance are vital for making organizational policy.
3. Explain how the principle of equal liberty and difference principle work to ensure social justice.
4. Describe how the maximin solution works to guarantee the interests of the least advantage are protected.
5. From Walzer: describe the obligations we have towards all members of a particular community.
6. Explain why, according to Walzer, a community must have a social contract with all citizens that guarantees their well-being.
7. Compare the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with our contemporary American notion of social welfare and obligation.

Terms...

1. Conflicts of Interest: disagreement between various social groups that are competing for benefits or resources
2. Original Position: a purely hypothetical situation in which one is placed behind a veil of ignorance and is asked to formulate basic principles of justice
3. veil of ignorance: persons are unaware of their "place, class position or social status within society". One is placed under the veil of ignorance in order to generate principles that will be fair to all regardless of one's social circumstances.
4. justice as fairness: principles agreed to in the original position
5. principle of equal liberty: "each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive basic liberty compatible with a similar liberty for others" (Rawls, A Theory of Justice, 60)
6. difference principle: "Social and economic inequalities, for example inequalities of wealth and authority, are just only if they result in compensating benefits for everyone, and in particular for the least advantaged members of society."(Rawls, A Theory of Justice, 14-15)
7. maximin solution: the process of ranking alternative principles of justice by their worst possible outcomes. We are then enjoined to choose the outcome in which the worst possible outcome is least negative for those who will be impacted by it.
8. minimally advantaged: those members of society who enjoy the least privileges as a result of their social and economic circumstances
9. reciprocity: the idea that the principles of justice are fair and that all members of society who are affected by these generated principles would agree to be bound by them in most situations

Concepts:

Rawls uses the moral and social theories of his predecessors to construct a ethical system that combines many of their strengths. Most notably he is indebted to Kant, Locke and Rousseau.The system of justice described below is most useful when we are trying to make sociopolitical institutions fair and evenhanded so that no one enjoys privileges based on wealth, fame, or any other advantageous particular situation.

• The social contract is one way to describe the tacit agreements that exist between all members of a given social group.
• As with Kant, Rawls also argues that each individual has an inviolable dignity that should never be sacrificed for the welfare of society as a whole.
• "Society ...is a cooperative venture for purposes of mutual advantage.
• In any given social group people generally share some common interests and desires. This situation leads us to cooperate with others to secure some of the goods we could not obtain if living in isolated situations.
• Naturally persons in living in groups will also encounter conflicts of interest where distribution of collective wealth and/or social resources are concerned. In these cases, Rawls devises a process to help establish ground rules for dealing with competing claims.
  • In cases where particular interests collide, we are asked to enter into the role of the disinterested or ideal observer.
  • Legislators adopt a common point of view to establish "the fundamental principles of justice" that will govern.
  • Corporations are also considered to be members of the community, and as such, must abide by the rules in force.
• Each rule maker adopts the veil of ignorance to ensure fair principles are generated. Members of the group are to ignore their "particular fortune and set of personal interests" while considering principles that, ideally, should be apply equally to every citizen regardless of social status or wealth.
• Justice as fairness: the notion that we are to create social institutions that treat all individuals with dignity and respect. Competing claims are to be be adjudicated based on the principle of equal liberty and the difference principle.
  • Principle of Equal Liberty: (see definition above) In a sense this is much like the categorical imperative in that when we choose to approve/disapprove of certain actions, the concepts are applied universally to everyone regardless of circumstance.
  • "People would be expected to refrain from choosing ends that would violate the liberties of others and were liberties that they would expect for themselves."
  • Basic liberties:
    1. political liberty
    2. freedom of speech and assembly
    3. freedom of thought & liberty of conscience
    4. personal freedom
    5. freedom to hold property
    6. freedom from arbitrary arrest and seizure
  • The Difference Principle: In short, we cannot disadvantage others so that we might enjoy a particular liberty. For example, it is wrong to willingly exploit low wage workers in the third world so that the majority of consumers in developed countries can enjoy low-priced goods and services.
    • Read this section closely to discern how the principle is applied to the notion of equality of opportunity.

Guide Questions:

Rawls:

1. Explain the original position and the veil of ignorance in your own words.
2. What are the two parts of the theory entitled, "justice as fairness?"
3. Describe the two principles of justice in your own words .
4. Why is it necessary to secure the rights of the least advantaged in a system we label "justice as fairness."
5. How does the maximin solution help to secure the rights of the least advantaged?

Walzer:

1. Why, according to Walzer, do we owe something to other members of the community?
2. What, specifically, do we owe them?
3. What is Walzer's conception of the social contract? How does it compare to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
4. Explain the tension between an entrepreneur's resistance to inspection, regulation and enforcement. How does this tension interfere with the community with regards to public safety?
5. Identify (in conjunction with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) the basic needs of someone living in contemporary American culture.
6. When are the rights of the poor violated?

Smartboard Notes

Smartboard Notes from Week 8 Lecture:

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