Fairness Essay Text

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The word fair means that you are not playing favoritism to any specific someone. In my opinion, i believe that fairness is a very broad word that falls into many aspects of society. Whether it is within the government or the career world, fairness is a concept that must always be taken into consideration. Whenever we think of equal treatment, we automatically think it equals fair treatment. We cannot presume that treating everyone equally is the same as treating them fairly. For example, if a mother has been giving her sixteen year old son the permission to drive, it does not mean that she has to allow her five year old daughter to do the same. If the mother does not allow the five year old to drive, she is seen as being unequal because she is allowing her sixteen year old to do so.

It will not mean equal treatment for everyone but by doing what the mother is doing, she is being fair to both her children. Another example would be that two students both forget to hand in their homework on a particular day. The teacher will then base her judgement on the students' background and the situation they're in. The teacher will most likely be more lenient with the student that has never been late, and probably will penalize the other student more strictly. If it was a first time offender, their punishment is usually lighter than that of a repeat offender. That is fair because if its only the first t our writers can help get your essay back on track, take a look at our services to learn more about how we can help. Essay writing service essay marking service place an order rawls addresses issues of liberty, social equality, democracy, and the conflict of interests between the individual and society.

A theory of justice summary: justice as fairness in a theory of justice, rawls begins with the statement that, ''justice is the first virtue of social institution,'' meaning that a good society is one structured according to principals of justice. Rawls asserts that existing theories of justice, developed in the field of philosophy, are not adequate: ''my guiding aim is to work out a theory of justice that is a viable alternative to these doctrines which have long dominated our philosophical tradition.'' he calls his theory aimed at formulating a conception of the basic structure of society in accordance with social justice justice as fairness. Rawls sets forth to determine the essential principles of justice on which a good society may be based. He explains the importance of principles of justice for two key purposes: first, to ''provide a way of assigning rights and duties in the basic institutions of society'' and secondly, to ''define the appropriate distribution of the benefits and burdens'' of society. Utilitarianism was first developed in the nineteenth century by ''the great utilitarians,'' whom rawls lists as david hume, adam smith, jeremy bentham, and john stuart mill.

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Utilitarianism essentially posits that a just society is one based on achieving the greatest good, or happiness, for the greatest number of people. However, many theorists have found this principle ultimately unsatisfactory because it implies that the. â» complete a theory of justice summary cited from: a theory of justice: introduction. A brief synopsis from wikipedia: in a theory of justice, rawls argues for a principled reconciliation of liberty and equality. Central to this effort is an account of the circumstances of justice inspired by david hume , and a fair choice situation closer in spirit to immanuel kant for parties facing such circumstances. These parties face moderate scarcity, and they are neither naturally altruistic nor purely egoistic: they have ends which they seek to advance, but desire to advance them through cooperation with others on mutually acceptable terms. Rawls offers a model of a fair choice situation the original position with its veil of ignorance within which parties would hypothetically choose mutually acceptable principles of justice.

Under such constraints, rawls believes that parties would find his favored principles of justice to be especially attractive, winning out over varied alternatives, including utilitarian and libertarian accounts. In 1974, rawls' colleague at harvard, robert nozick, published a defense of libertarian justice, anarchy, state, and utopia. 3 because it is, in part, a reaction to a theory of justice, the two books are now often read together.

Another harvard colleague, michael walzer, wrote a defence of communitarian political philosophy, spheres of justice, 4 as a result of a seminar he co taught with nozick. In a related line of criticism, michael sandel also a harvard colleague wrote liberalism and the limits of justice, 5 which took rawls to task for asking us to think about justice while divorcing ourselves from the very values and aspirations that define us. Sandel's line of argument in part draws on critiques of rawls advanced by both charles taylor and alasdair macintyre who argue for the importance that moral ontologies have on ethical arguments. 6 robert paul wolff wrote understanding rawls: a critique and reconstruction of a theory of justice 7 immediately following the publication of a theory of justice, which criticized rawls from a roughly marxist perspective. Wolff argues in this work that rawls' theory is an apology for the status quo insofar as it constructs justice from existing practice and forecloses the possibility that there may be problems of injustice embedded in capitalist social relations, private property or the market economy. Who wrote this essay request removal example essays feminist critics of rawls, such as susan moller okin, 8 largely focused on the extent to which rawls' theory could account for if at all injustices and hierarchies embedded in familial relations.

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Feminists, rallying around the theme of 'the personal is political', took rawls to task for failing to account for injustices found in patriarchal social relations and the gendered division of labor, especially in the household. The assumptions of the original position, and in particular, the use of maximin reasoning, have also been criticized most notably by kenneth arrow 9 and john harsanyi , 10 with the implication either that rawls designed the original position to derive the two principles, or that an original position more faithful to its initial purpose would not lead to his favored principles. In reply rawls has emphasized the role of the original position as a device of representation for making sense of the idea of a fair choice situation for free and equal citizens. 11 rawls has also emphasized the relatively modest role that maximin plays in his argument: it is a useful heuristic rule of thumb given the curious features of choice behind the veil of ignorance. 12 some egalitarian critics have raised concerns over rawls' emphasis on primary social goods. For instance, amartya sen has argued that we should attend not only to the distribution of primary goods, but also how effectively people are able to use those goods to pursue their ends.

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13 in a related vein, norman daniels has wondered why healthcare shouldn't be treated as a primary good, 14 and some of his subsequent work has addressed this question, arguing for a right to health care within a broadly rawlsian framework. 15 philosopher allan bloom, a student of leo strauss, criticized rawls for failing to account for the existence of natural right in his theory of justice, and wrote that rawls absolutizes social union as the ultimate goal which would conventionalize everything into artifice. Cohen's series of influential papers culminated first in his book, if you're an egalitarian, how come you're so rich? 17 and then in his later work, rescuing justice and equality. Cohen's criticisms are leveled against rawls' avowal of inequality under the difference principle, against his application of the principle only to social institutions, and against rawlsian fetishism with primary goods again, the metric which rawls chooses as his currency of equality. Philosopher and nobel prize winning economist amartya sen, a former student of rawls', critiques and attempts to revitalize a theory of justice in his 2009 book the idea of justice. He defends the basic notion of justice as fairness but attacks the notion that the two principles of justice emerging from the original position are necessary.

Sen claims that there are multiple possible outcomes of the reflective equilibrium behind the veil of ignorance. A theory of justice 1971 , by john rawls, is ''one of the most influential works in moral and political philosophy written in the twentieth century,'' according to samuel freeman in the collected papers of john rawls 19. A theory of justice is rawls's attempt to formulate a philosophy of justice and a theoretical program for establishing political structures designed to preserve social justice and individual liberty. Rawls writes in reaction to the then predominant theory of utilitarianism, which posits that justice is defined by that which provides the greatest good for the greatest number of people. Rawls proposes a theoretical person who, shrouded in a veil of ignorance, must design a just society without foreknowledge of his or her own status in that society. Rawls asserts that from this objective vantage point, which he calls the original position, the individual will choose a system of justice that adequately provides for those positioned on the lowest rungs of society. The individual will do so because he or she may end up in such a disadvantaged position and will want to be adequately provided for.

Rawls draws from earlier theories of political philosophy that posit a social contract by which individuals implicitly agree to the terms on which they are governed in any society. Rawls concludes that such a social contract, formulated from the perspective of the original position, will guarantee a just society without sacrificing the happiness or liberty of any one individual. As we are always expanding we are looking to grow our team of freelance writers. To find out more about writing with us then please check our freelance writing jobs page. Rawls addresses issues of liberty, social equality, democracy, and the conflict of interests between the individual and society. In a theory of justice, rawls begins with the statement that, ''justice is the first virtue of social institution,'' meaning that a good society is one structured according to principals of justice.

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