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Chapter Six
6.2.4 (Distributive) Justice
would be virtuous…”) Some critics have pointed to deficiencies in the definition of a virtue itself. Aristotle’s definition of a virtue as ‘a settled disposition of habit’ might not be a good enough explanation of what a virtue is. Every moral theory faces a criticism like this one, that is, a question about the meaning of its core concepts. But as it faces virtue theory, the problem lies in the conundrum of ‘deliberately choosing’ that which we have a ‘settled disposition of habit’ to do.
everyone. Note that he does not say they have to be distributed equally. There could be advantages for everyone gained by an unequal distribution. This leads to what Rawls calls The Difference Principle: any inequalities in the distribution must be acceptable to those who receive the smallest share. In his words: “The social order is not to establish and secure the more attractive prospects of those better off unless doing so is to the advantage of those less fortunate.” Thus, Rawls claims that some forms of inequalities may still be just: they are just if they are to the benefit of the least well off. Under such a principle, injustice is not simply inequality, but rather injustice inequalities that are not to the benefit of everyone, and especially injustices which are not to the benefit of the least well-off person. This is, he says, the system of distribution which all rational parties would choose if they were in an “original position”, standing “behind a veil of ignorance”. That is to say, it is the system of just distribution everyone would choose if no one knew what his or her social position would be, nor what share he or she would receive. In the “original position”, one can know the basic structure of society but one can not know whether one will end up rich or poor, male or female, black or white, well educated or poorly educated, and so on. Rawls claims that someone in such a position would bet that they might end up as the person with the smallest share, and would therefore want that smallest share to be as large as it can be. Criticisms of the theory: Rawls presupposes that in the “original position”, people are still self-interested, and they want to maximize the size of their own share; and this Rawls identifies as rational behaviour. Some of Rawls’ critics have questioned this assumption about rationality. There may be other models of rationality that do not presuppose self-maximization: for instance it may be rational to be charitable, sympathetic, and caring. Some critics have also pointed out that not everyone gets to sit at the bargaining table where the social goods get distributed. Children, people with certain kinds of disabilities, people from foreign societies, even animals and the environment, have a stake in the shape of the distribution arrangement. But they might
6.2.4 (Distributive) Justice Main Author: John Rawls (1921-2002) Statement of the theory: The just distribution of social goods is a distribution that is advantageous to everyone. An unequal distribution can be just if it increases the total wealth, and also maximises the size of the minimum share. Discussion: Unlike the three theories of ethics discussed above, Justice is not a theory about individual choices. It is a theory of social and sometimes political choices. There are, of course, many theories of justice, but the one I will focus un here is perhaps the most widely discussed and accepted: the theory by American philosopher John Rawls. Since his flagship text “A Theory of Justice” was published in 1971, literally all discussion of justice among philosophers has somehow revolved around his ideas: promoting them, modifying them, criticizing and rejecting them, but nonetheless talking about them. Whatever else justice may be, and whoever’s theory of justice we are talking about, justice is a principle of social organisation, concerning the distribution of social goods such as wealth, power, material resources, punishments and honours, and the like. The first line of Rawls famous theory confirms the ancient orientation of justice toward the public realm: “Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought”. So when we speak of ‘distributive’ justice, we’re speaking of the fairness of how we distribute those social goods. Rawls claimed that social goods must be distributed in a way that is advantageous to