SEEU Review vol. 5 Nr. 2 (pdf) - South East European University

Dr. Ercan Gündoğan
Principles of Justice (selected):
Principles of justice which are supposed to be selected in a veil of
ignorance through reflective equilibrium are twofold:
“first, each person participating in a practice, or affected by it, has an
equal right to the most extensive liberty compatible with a like liberty for all;
and second, inequalities are arbitrary unless it is reasonable to expect that
they will work out for everyone’s advantage, and provided the positions and
offices to which they attach, or from which they may be gained, are open to
all” (Rawls, 1999, 48).
Rawls says that “Justice as fairness begins...with the choice of the first
principle of a conception of justice” and social relations become just after
agreements turn into contract: “our social situation is just if it is such that by
… sequence of the hypothetical agreements we would have contracted into
the general system of rules which defines it” (Rawls, 1971, 13).
The first principle refers to the equal basic rights and duties: “each person
is to have an equal right to the most extensive basic liberty compatible with a
similar liberty for others” (Rawls, 1971, 60). In the second principle, “social
and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they are both (a)
reasonably expected to be to everyone’s advantage, and (b) attached to
positions and offices open to all” (Rawls, 1971, 60). The second one
suggests that social and economic inequalities (in wealth, authority, for
instances) are just “only if they result in compensating benefits for everyone,
and in particular for the least advantaged members of society” (Rawls, 1971,
14-5). According to this formula, social and economic inequalities can be
seen as just under the commands of justice as fairness. The two principles
seem to be fair since the better-offs “could expect the willing cooperation of
others when some workable schema is a necessary condition of the welfare
of all” (Rawls, 1971, 15). Rawls means that the less-offs support the betteroffs
when the welfare of all is insured.
Rawls refers to a fair practice, or to say, fair game, and suggest that
inequalities are accepted if they are appropriate for everybody and rights and
authorities are in the same distance for everybody.
Priority Rules, Difference Principle and the General Conception of
Justice: The last formulation in TJ includes two priority rules and integrates
general conception into the principles: First Priority Rule suggests the
priority of liberty: “The principles of justice are to be ranked in lexical order
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