Summary: Social Justice Theory John Rawls

Read the summary and the most important questions on Social justice Theory John Rawls

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• What are the main thinkers of the SCT?

  Hobbes (1588-1679) -
  SN: War of all against all
  SC: Laws are a matter of agreement between rational and self-interested persons
  
  
  Locke -
  SN: Freedom governed by the Law of Nature
  SC: Protection of property and settling of disputes
  
  Rousseau -
  SN: Free and peaceful life
  SC: Free and equal citizens form a general will to governs living together on an equal footing.

• What are the main points of contractarianism according Hobbes??

  Psychological egoism:
  

  • All we do is motivate d solely but the desire to better our own situations;
  • We have the rational capacity to do this as maximally as possible.

  State of nature is war of against all
  The social contract is the most fundamental source of all that we depend upon to live well;
  Laws are a matter of agreement between rational and self-interested persons.

• What are the main issues according John Locke (1632-1704) due to social contract?

  
  

  • The SN is a state of liberty where persons are free to pursue their own interests and plans. Because of the Law of Nature, it is relatively peaceful. 
    
  • Due to the absence of civil authority that can interfere in disputes over property, the threat of (perpetual) war is always looming.
    
  • It is because of the protection of property (incl. Body) and a fair acces to the available resources that people decide to enter into a social contract.
    
  • Liberties of the moderns: individual freedom and property rights.
    

• What is the ontology of SCT?

  The state of nature; the situation before we enter a Social contract requires to be acknowledged. From that point of view the state of nature determines why a social contract is important and what it looks like?

• What's the SCT moral epistemology?

  How do we know what is good and bad?
  Principles of justice.
  Common shared based ideas as a fund of society. 
  Tolerance to comprehensible doctrines which are not discussed in political domain but also may exhibit in social culture.

• What is the central question of Social Contract Theory (SCT)

  
  

  • Why obey what law? (Pieter Omtzigt)
    
  • Why political authority has the authority it has?
    
  • What law - how do we know that a law is just and in our self-interest to follow that law - the justification of that law.
    

• What are the main objections about Social Contract Theory?

  • Inclusion - Societies is not a closed entity; but there are generations coming and going and there are also disasters in nature which causes big influences on society. Also animals and non-humanbeings should be integrated to have a voice in the social contract. 
    
  • The view from nowhere does not exist; epistemology, colored ontology, intersectionality, obscure power relations, impoverished relations; The liberal person is gendered and cannot be claim to be a general representation of all persons.

  • The distinction between the political and the public private (care-ethics / gender roles / distributing care responsibilities in a household.
    

• What should Ralws respond to these critiques?

  Inclusion
  View from nowhere
  Distinction between political and public private.

• What is the difference between Contractarianism and Contracualism?

  Contractarianism: Maximising my own interests in bargaining with others. It is in your self-interest to obey rules.
  Contractualism: Pursuing my interests in a way that I can justify to others whose equal moral status I recognize. Acting from Kantian perspectives to act and treat the other as and end and not as mere means.

• How should the moral and political point of view be discovered?

  The moral and political point of view is discovered the Original Position (the view from nowhere via impartiality.
  We discover the principles of justice and what it requires of individuals and institutions behind a Veil of Ignorance.