John Rawls (1921-2002)

Overview:

• he formed a bridge between modern liberal and social democratic thought

His beliefs:

• he saw his main task as reconciling the firm liberal belief in freedom with the need to prevent excessive inequality in society
• in tackling this, he addressed a problem faced by both liberals and socialists-that measures taken to reduce inequality, or prevent it from occuring, will inevitably involve the loss of liberty for some
• for example, if income is to be more evenly spread, there must be higher tax for the rich and lower for the poor, representing a loss of liberty as taxpayers are no longer free to spend their income in the way they wish
• similarly, any attempt to manipulate wages to prevent poverty among low-paid workers interferes with labour markets and curtails the freedom of entrepreneurs to run their businesses as they wish
• he tackled the problem, his objective is to reconcile individual liberty with social justice and to establish criteria under which inequality or state regulation may be tolerated
• he uses a philosophical device which he calls the 'original position' to develop his conclusions

The 'original position' and the 'veil of ignorance':

• Rawls imagines humankind in the situation that would have existed before society came into being, that is, a natural state, which he terms the 'original position'
• if people are to create a society from this state of nature, they need to decide how wealth and goods are to be distributed within society
• however, Rawls places a condition on them before they can make their decisions. People are placed behind a 'veil of ignorance'- by this he means that they do not know how successful…