John rawls, an American political philosopher, ethicist, Ph.D. from Princeton University and professor from Harvard University, is his masterpiece, and he is regarded as one of the best political philosophers in the West. The theory of justice was put forward by him in view of the western mainstream political values-utilitarianism.
The first sentence of the article expresses the author's core view: justice is the first virtue of social system. He believes that fairness is justice. In these works, fairness and justice are interpreted as people's unanimous views on the conditions of a sound and lasting social cooperation system in a constitutional democratic society, so this is a view of justice contained in the idea of a sound and lasting social cooperation system.
In my opinion, the realization of justice must first ensure that people can understand what justice is. If people do not recognize justice, then what we call justice is the first virtue, and it is just a castle in the air. Therefore, in his book, he emphasized the power of freedom on the basis of Rousseau and Kant's social contract theory. Since the French Enlightenment, western countries have been emphasizing the freedom of human nature and the exertion of human abilities. The theory of justice based on freedom has been recognized by western society in essence.
In today's China, we are confused by material desires and pursue material enjoyment endlessly. Morality and justice in people's hearts have begun to distort. When I saw the old man fall, I didn't want to help him quickly, but looked at him coldly with a theatre-watching attitude. Asked why he didn't go up to help, the answer was: how do I know if he will blackmail me?
Such absurd logic makes our social values ugly and distorted. We have been emphasizing the imbalance of the system, and we should reform China from the system level. Rawls' theory of justice puts forward two principles for this system. The second principle is that social and economic inequality should be arranged in such a way that people can reasonably expect this inequality to be beneficial to everyone, and their positions and official positions are open to everyone. The principle of justice for individuals is first of all the principle of fairness, that is, if the system is just, individuals can voluntarily accept it and get benefits from it. In this case, individuals should abide by this system.
Secondly, from the legal point of view, we should ensure the supremacy and strong execution of the law. We can't let the law only target at the civilian class, and the binding force on those officials and wealthy businessmen is pitiful. In the west, law is the mandatory order of public rules issued by rational people, aiming at regulating people's behavior and providing the structure of social cooperation. In order to become the first virtue of society, justice needs a strong legal escort in addition to creating a good environment at the moral and institutional levels.
Isn't loyalty, filial piety, shame and honesty advocated by China in ancient times another embodiment of justice that Rawls pursues most? Therefore, the pursuit of social health, correct development and healthy humanity. Throughout the ages, most of them have.
I watched A Theory of Justice 2. After reading this masterpiece, it touched me a lot. Just after visiting Douban, I found that few people commented on this book, and many people reflected the difficulty of this book, so I suddenly doubled my confidence in myself, because I didn't find it difficult, but I think Rawls is a cautious scholar, always setting theoretical boundaries for himself, and systematically and meticulously demonstrating his principles of justice from two paths: transcendental and empirical.
In the first part of On, Rawls mainly starts from the original state. In order to make the principle simpler and easier to deduce, he also presupposed veil of ignorance. From this, he demonstrated that people in veil of ignorance tend to unify two principles of justice. The first principle is the principle of freedom and equality, and the second principle is the principle of equal opportunities and differences. Although there are only so many main contents, the cautious Rawls spent a whole series to explain these problems, including the definition of veil of ignorance, the explanation of the original state, and why he assumed such a premise. By comparing with utilitarianism and intuitionism, this paper explains why people choose the principle of justice (maximum and minimum reasoning), what are the characteristics of the principle of justice, and what kind of' lexical sequence' exists between and within these two principles of justice. How did this lexical sequence come into being ... In short, Rawls explained in detail and comprehensively how the two principles of justice were chosen in the constant comparison with various utilitarianism.
In the second "system" part, Rawls mainly describes the basic social structure that satisfies the two principles of justice, and examines the obligations and responsibilities they bring to individuals. It should be said that this is a systematic and individual part in which theory is applied to reality. This is also an important link to make the theory not become pure metaphysical thinking. When it is applied to the system, there are four stages, namely, accepting the principle of justice, constitutional stage, legislative stage, and judges and administrative officials applying the specified norms to specific individuals. These four stages are also the process of going to veil of ignorance. The second principle of justice, that is, the principle of equal opportunity and difference, will also play an important role in the economic distribution system. Rawls also considered saving justice to solve the problem of intergenerational justice. As for the personal responsibility and obligation, Rawls deduced many personal obligations and responsibilities based on the principle of justice, such as loyalty and commitment. In addition, Rawls also pays special attention to the injustice of law in society. He stressed that this situation is possible and people must abide by it, because it is adopted by most principles, but people can also resist it through non-violence and rejection of conscience.
John rawls (JohnRawls 192 1-), a famous American philosopher and ethicist, was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 192 1, graduated from Princeton University in 1943, and received his doctorate in 1950. Later, he studied at Princeton University (1950- 1952), Cornell University (1953- 1959) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1960- 1962).
The book A Theory of Justice is a book that Rawls has been thinking about for nearly 20 years. It integrates Rawls' ideas, develops the ideas expressed in Rawls' papers published in the past ten years into a tight and coherent system, that is, a tradition of inheriting the western contract theory, and tries to replace the current utilitarian theory of justice on the basic structure of society.
Rawls famously said that justice is the primary value of social system, just as truth is the primary value of ideological system. A theory, no matter how exquisite and concise, must be rejected or corrected as long as it is untrue. Similarly, some laws and systems, no matter how efficient and orderly, must be reformed or abolished as long as they are unjust. Everyone has the inviolability based on justice, even in the name of the overall interests of society.
How to promote social fairness and justice and maintain social harmony and stability, the author believes that we should start from the following aspects: First, from the height of building a harmonious socialist society, we should deeply understand the great significance of promoting social fairness and justice, properly coordinate and take into account the interests of all sectors of society, correctly handle contradictions among the people, and timely resolve various social risks. Secondly, when formulating laws, regulations, policies and measures (decision-making level), we should listen to the opinions of the masses in all aspects, comprehensively consider the long-term interests and practical interests brought to the masses, and find a balance between the interests of the greatest number of people and the specific interests of different classes and groups. Third, pay attention to people's livelihood (at the operational level), spend more limited financial funds on developing social undertakings and solving the difficulties and problems of low-income groups, and give more care and help to the needy groups. Fourth, to establish and improve a long-term mechanism to promote social fairness and justice, the reform measures to promote fairness and justice must be promoted as a whole and matched with each other, and various means such as law, administration, economy and society should be comprehensively used, so that the vast majority of people can enjoy the fruits of economic and social development brought about by reform and opening up.