PHIL 3230 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Well-Order, Capability Approach, Social Contract
9 Dec 2015
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Document Summary
Dissatisfied with the traditional philosophical arguments about what makes a social institution just and what justifies political or social actions and policies. Utilitarian argument problem: consistent with the idea of the tyranny of majorities over minorities. Intuitionist problem: explains away justice by saying that people know it when they see it, and fails to deal with the many conflicting human intuitions. Attempts to establish a reasoned account of social justice through the social contract approach. Social contract approach: a society is in some sense an agreement among all those within that society. If a society were an agreement, what kind of arrangement would everyone agree to? . States that the contract is a purely hypothetical one: does not argue that people existed outside the social state or had made agreements to establish a particular type of society. Justice as fairness: basic structure of society as the primary subject of justice and identifies justice as the first virtue of social institutions.
