PHIL 3230 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Collegehumor, Distributive Justice, Oligopoly
Document Summary
Justification of rawls" difference principle (principle of distributive justice): People don"t deserve to reap the full benefits from the contingent social advantages they start out with (wealth, social class, gender, race, etc. ) They don"t even deserve to fully benefit from their natural talents, abilities: these are morally arbitrary benefits (or disadvantages), unless the basic background institutions of society are already just. You must be precise and able to defend it. We need a theory of justice that is either impartial (not favouring the interests of a single group in society, or reflecting social dominance) and which gives equal consideration to everyone"s interests.