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
3.
The author's primary purpose in ███ ███████ ██ ██
a
show why a █████████████ ██████ ███ █████████
This doesn’t capture the focus on Rawls’s theory of justice. The passage isn’t about the abandonment of utilitarianism; it’s about Rawls’s theory as an alternative to utilitarianism.
b
describe the novel ███ ██ █████ █ ██████ █████████ █ ███████
This best captures the purpose, which is to present Rawls’s theory of justice as a solution to the problem of utilitarianism. “Novel” is supported by the fact the author calls Rawls’s theory “ingenious” and “clever.”
c
sketch the historical ███████████ ██ █ ██████████ ██████
The author doesn’t sketch the historical development of Rawls’s theory. We don’t know anything about the timeline of its development.
d
debate the pros ███ ████ ██ █ ███████ ██████
The author doesn’t debate the pros and cons of Rawls’s theory. She presents Rawls’s theory to help the reader understand it. Although the author does identify pros and mentions one critique at the end, that doesn’t make debating pros/cons the overall purpose. The overall purpose is to describe Rawls’s theory as an alternative to utilitarianism.
e
argue for the █████ ██ █ █████████████ ██████
The author doesn’t argue that Rawls’s theory is true. She merely presents it as an interesting alternative to utilitarianism.