Justice as Fairness

Among U.S. citizens, there has been a consistent widening gap between economic classes over the past decade, however few have recognized it as a serious issue. Approximately five percent of Americans think that economic inequality warrants serious recognition and action. Chris Rock stated last year, “Oh people don’t even know. If poor people knew how rich people are, there would be riots in the streets” (Fitz). With such a gap between the rich and the poor in today’s society; the government…

The Road to Justice The road to justice has many twist and turns, many cleverly disguised paths that lead to dead ends, and continues to narrow the further one travels along the right path. The word justice has many different and conflicting connotations of revenge and being fair. The Webster’s New World College Dictionary defines justice as: The quality of being righteous; rectitude, impartiality; fairness, the quality of being right or correct, sound reason; rightfulness; validity, reward…

This extract sheds light upon Rawls' theory of the "veil of ignorance." Through this theory, Rawls' focuses on highlighting the importance behind the formation of a society from an "original position" where each individual though thoroughly informed about the facts of the world, is oblivious about himself in terms of his social status, class position, wealth, health, natural talents, opportunities, characteristics etc. The idea behind Rawls' theory is for the individuals within a society to…

declaration “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!” (Marx, Critique of the Gotha Program, 465). Nozick explains that this type of patterning of principles undermines the task of a theory of distributive justice. If the task of distributive justice is “to fill in the blank in ‘each according to his _______’ is to be predisposed to search for a pattern” (Nozick…

Question 1: Rawls and Feminism Should we be caring for the ones who are most venerable or the poor? Philosopher John Rawls, believes that we should be thinking about the poor first before we make any policies, he attempts to account for social justice. “The natural distribution is neither just nor unjust; nor is it unjust that persons are born into society at some particular position. These are simply natural facts. What is just and unjust is the way that institutions deal with these facts.”…

It is submitted that Rawls theory of justice in essence seeks an equal distribution of wealth among all individuals in society. The first of Rawls two principles is the most important when discussion the concept of justice. Regardless of whether the equalizing of injustice and inequality is not in the best interests of everyone, Rawls will not allow for any sort of manipulation or injustice to be served to one individual over another. According to Rawls, the political liberties mentioned above,…

Rawls believes in fairness and that people like Jobs would be hindered by a something called a “veil of ignorance”. He says that, “no one knows his place in society, his class position or social status; nor does he know his fortune in the distribution of natural assets and abilities, his intelligence and strength, and the like.” This veil can help the rational man make fair decisions based on Rawls’ two principles of justice: maximize liberty and minimize inequalities.…

moral thinkers of the twentieth century in America. Rawls spent around two decades to planning a hypothesis of equity which is called Justice as fairness and distributed the hypothesis in A Theory of Justice in 1971. Rawls present a fanciful picture of individuals in the original position, behind a veil of ignorance, debating the standards of equity. In principle of Justice, Rawls appropriates the social contract convention in accommodating a liberal responsibility to individual rights and…

Social justice is the fair and just relation between the individual and society. This is measured by the explicit and tacit terms for the distribution of wealth, opportunities for personal activity and social privileges. In Western as well as in older Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has often referred to the process of ensuring that individuals fulfill their societal roles and receive what was their due from society. In the current global grassroots movements for social justice,…

2008), social justice is defined as ‘acting in accordance with fair treatment regardless of economic status, race, ethnicity, age, citizenship, disability, or sexual orientation’ (p. 28). This definition encompasses the multitude of factors one needs to take into account when working closely in the public health field. Each category can be broken down to different spectrums that has the potential for bias and unjust treatment to the local community. In my opinion social justice is fairness…