Rawls also says the content of public reason is given by a family of political conceptions of justice, and not by a single one. Rawls also seeks to distinguish public reason from what is sometimes referred to as secular reason and secular values, which are not the same as public reason. He says that the role of public reason serves to quiet divisiveness and encourage social stability. Public reasoning aims for public justification.
Rawls argues that public reason is characteristic of a democratic people. It is the reason of its citizens, which are those sharing the status of equal citizenship. Public reason is public in three ways: its subject is the good of the public and the matters of fundamental justice, it is given by the ideals and …show more content…
He tries to differentiate, this time, between moral philosophy and political philosophy—for example, comprehensive moral conception vs. more properly and specifically political theory. The basis for justice as fairness was homogeneity, and he realized that democratic societies are usually more pluralistic. He speaks about good vs. right and setting aside the good in favour of the right(s); when separated from the good, the right resolves to rights in the plural. Rawls harks back to his Original Position, Veil of Ignorance, and Difference Principle. In Theory of Justice, Rawls confesses that he was proposing individual rights not only as a political principle to govern, but individuality as the meaning of human existence (Rawls, 15). Now, he's saying to withhold judgment on any ultimate theory, and we will then make a political theory that doesn't assume any meaning of life generally. He wants to make it merely a political principle, as opposed to earlier when he understood rights in connection to an idea of the meaning of life. He explains the Original Position as proposing a situation, and whatever is the outcome of that (hypothetical) situation will be considered fair or just (Rawls, 22). It's a modified social contract without the state of nature, because the state of nature embodies a premises of human nature, which Rawls is trying to stay away from this time. The Veil of Ignorance will naturally bring about the Difference Principle. This inherently leads people to form a society that will be of the greatest good to the least advantaged. He then introduces the maximin principle, which is the desire for those in the Original Position to make the lowest "floor" as high as
Rawls argues that public reason is characteristic of a democratic people. It is the reason of its citizens, which are those sharing the status of equal citizenship. Public reason is public in three ways: its subject is the good of the public and the matters of fundamental justice, it is given by the ideals and …show more content…
He tries to differentiate, this time, between moral philosophy and political philosophy—for example, comprehensive moral conception vs. more properly and specifically political theory. The basis for justice as fairness was homogeneity, and he realized that democratic societies are usually more pluralistic. He speaks about good vs. right and setting aside the good in favour of the right(s); when separated from the good, the right resolves to rights in the plural. Rawls harks back to his Original Position, Veil of Ignorance, and Difference Principle. In Theory of Justice, Rawls confesses that he was proposing individual rights not only as a political principle to govern, but individuality as the meaning of human existence (Rawls, 15). Now, he's saying to withhold judgment on any ultimate theory, and we will then make a political theory that doesn't assume any meaning of life generally. He wants to make it merely a political principle, as opposed to earlier when he understood rights in connection to an idea of the meaning of life. He explains the Original Position as proposing a situation, and whatever is the outcome of that (hypothetical) situation will be considered fair or just (Rawls, 22). It's a modified social contract without the state of nature, because the state of nature embodies a premises of human nature, which Rawls is trying to stay away from this time. The Veil of Ignorance will naturally bring about the Difference Principle. This inherently leads people to form a society that will be of the greatest good to the least advantaged. He then introduces the maximin principle, which is the desire for those in the Original Position to make the lowest "floor" as high as