From the reading, Political Justice by John Rawls, the main thesis of the unit is the call for an egalitarian society through distributive justice. According to the author, it is possible to have a just and a fair society. Rawls argues that for there to be a just society in which every individual has freedom, the basic institutions must understand the values of liberty and equality.
There are several points from the reading which supports the main thesis in this unit. To back his assertion, the author uses two principles of justice to argue in favor of the just society he sees as ideal. Ideally, Rawls posits that a just society is one that is governed by two principles. According to the author, the first principle maintains that each individual in the society has a similar indefeasible right to enough system of identical freedoms. The author here attempts to point out that while a society may be a large institution and with individuals with different social class and cultural backgrounds, each one must have an equal claim to liberty in the society and be treated without bias. This, according to the author, leads to a fair and just society where there is equality. Additionally, the author looks at the second principle that must be fulfilled to have an egalitarian society. In this, Rawls accepts that in the society, there must be social and political inequalities (Rawls 194). However, these inequalities have to meet two conditions. One is that the inequities are to be tied to positions which are exposed to sundry under circumstances of reasonable parity of opportunities and second, they are to offer the greatest benefit to the less advantaged in the society. From these two principles, the author tries to show how a society can act to have an equal distribution of justice. Arguably, the principles try to cater for the entire society even the disadvantaged.
Additionally, the author talks about the basic structure of a well-ordered society. He asserts that this structure is simply how both social and political institutions of a society fit together into a basic cooperation. Ideally, the basic structures have regulations but are regulated by the principles of justice. Further, the author points out that when people are in an impartial choice situation, they tend to choose the aforementioned principles to govern a society simply because they have no idea of their position in the new society. As such, the free and equal individuals are able to come up with just laws (Rawls 202). This impartial option condition he calls it the ‘original position’.
In spite of the above assertions, the author makes several assumptions. For example, Rawls assumes that people are equal while in reality, a society cannot be equal especially with the contemporary diversity in culture, lifestyles, and religion. His ideas, therefore, are based on a situation where there is an ideal society with equality. Additionally, the author makes an assumption about hierarchies and injustices that are found in family relations (Rawls 198). Arguably, the author assumes that there are no hierarchies and injustices in families while in reality, the two have been big challenges to the social order of families across the world. lastly, John Rawls assumes that individuals can think about justice while at the same time being separated from values and aspirations that allow them to determine the real meaning of justice.
Works Cited
Rawls, John. A theory of justice: Revised edition. Harvard university press, 2009.
Rawls, John. "Justice as fairness." The philosophical review 67.2 (1958): 164-194.
