Self-study
P1
The following passage is adapted from a journal article.
P2
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Intro topic ·
Rawl's theory of justice
We first need to understand what Rawls was reacting to.
What Rawls was reacting to ·
Utilitarianism
Philosophy that emphasized maximizing fulfillment of people's preferences. Utilitarianism led to strange results -- it supported executing an innocent person as long as the action increased total satisficaction.
Rawls's criticism ·
Utilitarianism wrongly endorses violating the liberty of the few for the good of the many
P3
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Rawls's alternative to utilitarianism ·
Justice is whatever arises from a fair procedure
(The author calls Rawls's theory "ingenious." This suggests a positive attitude.)
P4
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Elaborate on fair procedure ·
The veil of ignorance
If a child must cut a cake into slices to be divided among others, but doesn't know who will get which slice, he'll likely divide the cake into equal slices. In this way, ignorance about who gets which slice leads to a fair process for dividing the cake.
P5
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Elaborate on veil of ignorance ·
If people were ignorant about their own personal qualities, they'd devise a system where nobody loses
This arrangement would be a just system.
P6
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Assumptions underlying Rawls's theory ·
People want primary goods, and would agree that everyone should get a minimum of these goods
People in the "original position" -- the state of ignorance about their own personal qualities -- wouldn't want to lose out on the bare minimum level of primary goods. (The author says that this "unfortunately" is redistributionist. So, there's an aspect about Rawls's theory that the author doesn't like.)
Passage Style
Critique or debate
Problem-analysis
1.
According to the passage, Rawls ████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ███████ ██ ███████ ███ ███████
a
a thought experiment
We’re told that Rawls uses a “
b
a process of ███████████
The passage never states that Rawls uses process of elimination.
c
an empirical study ██ ██████ ████████████
The passage never states that Rawls uses an empirical study. We don’t get any description of data Rawls collected or used.
d
a deduction from █ ███ █████ ██████████
The passage never states that Rawls uses a deduction from a few basic principles. Rawls attempts to formulate principles of justice, but he doesn’t start with principles of justice and reach conclusions based on those principles.
e
a consideration of ███ ███████ ██ █████
The passage never states that Rawls uses the meaning of words as part of explaining his theory.