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Justice or Injustice

Essay by   •  March 21, 2012  •  Essay  •  562 Words (3 Pages)  •  1,335 Views

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Justice or injustice

Justice is perhaps the most important endeavor a person can attempt in their life, but in today's society, everyone has there own beliefs about justice. People in society develop their theories through what they experience in life and the events that they witness. John Rawls argument goes a long way to solving the problem of distributive justice by utilizing different common aspects of the social contract in his work titled "A Theory of Justice." Rawls believes that for a well-structured society to exist, the citizens need to be rational individuals who follow moral principles even in the face of the knowledge that people are self-interested and motivated to promote their own agendas. Rawls develops principles of justice through the use of an entirely artificial design known as the original position, in which everyone decides principles of justice from behind a veil of ignorance. Ultimately, a just society can be achieved if all of the participating members of that association work together to develop a system of government that guarantees the equal distribution of law and social goods to each individual.

Several people believe that there are certain things that are categorically wrong even when they bring about a good result, even if it means saving five people at the cost of one life. Rawls states, "The idea of the original position is to set up a fair procedure so that any principles agreed to will be just. The aim is to use the notion of pure procedural justice as a basis of theory" (183). Individual right and freedom should occur in a justly even among minorities. In this so-called "original position" everyone needs to be equally situated by an imaginary "veil of ignorance". Society must eliminate the effects of contingencies in which individuals seeking to explore natural and social conditions to their personal benefit. Therefore, in order to do such act, people are positioned behind "veil of ignorance". People behind do not know the different choices and options will have an affect on their particular situation and so they will be forced to evaluate principles on the basis of general considerations. From the perspective of the original position, it will guarantee of a just society without the need of sacrificing the happiness and liberty of others. Two major principles that play in justice societies are based on, first, providing way to assess rights and duties, second is defining the appropriate distribution of society. Most of the influential version of consequential moral theory is the philosophy of utilitarianism. The just thing to do is maximizing utility by balancing of pleasure over pain, happiness over suffering. Individuals choose principles of justice in a position that is supposed to be just and choices in this fair position defines the right principles of justice. The bases of morality whether

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