Justice
A. Definition
What is justice?
The concept of justice is giving people what is due and not giving what is not due. In other words, making sure citizens get their rights.
B. How do we know what is "due"
"Not what it would be nice for them to have. Not what it would be polite to give them. Not even what it would be morally good to give them, What they have as their due." (Adam Swift, Political Philosophy)
It would be our duty to bring about what is due to other people, either through our own means or social institutions.
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Equality
The assumption is that everyone benefits from the same supports. This is equal treatment.
Equity
Everyone gets the supports they need (this is the concept of affirmative action) thus producing equity.
Justice
All three can see the game without support or accommodation because the cause(s) of the iniquity was addressed. The systemic barrier has been removed.
Rawls "justice as fairness"
- Tries to blend equality with liberty.
- An "updated" social contact (The original position) and "vell of ignorance"
- A moral rational conception of justice
The veil of ignorance
Remove yourself of any form of attribution, be it ethnicity race, gender, economic status, etc. You are a rational, equal, and free person. You have no idea in what condition you will bear. How would you structure society?
Rawls three principles
1. Principal of equal liberty
Each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive total system of equal basic liberties compatible with a similar system of liberty for all. (A theory of Justice 1975, ed p.266)
2. The difference principle of equal opportunity
Social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they are both :
a. to the greatest benefit of the least advantaged, consistent with the just savings principle, and
b. attached to offices and positions open to all under the condition of fair equality of opportunity.
(A Theory of Justice, 1975, rev. ed 266)
Inequalities are allowed, only if they benefit the less well-off. Example: affirmative actions, gender
quotas, etc.
3. The equal opportunity principle
"Equal basic liberties"
Everyone should be able to access these liberties :
a. Freedom to vote
b. Freedom to run for office
c. Freedom from arbitrary arrest
d. Freedom of speech
e. Freedom to assemble
Equal Opportunities
Offices, or positions of power, in society needs to open to all. Why? This is to ensure equal access to political power for everyone, not just a select few.
Rawls summarized
The state, through social and political institutions, is responsible for distributive justice. This will then lead to true equality and liberty.
Nozick's idea of the "minimal state"
a. There are no such things as "distributive justice": any distribution implies a central authority, which results in the violation of the individual's liberty.
b. The state's function is to maximize and protect negative liberty.
Justice as an entitlement
1. Rightful acquisition entitles a person to something ("justice acquisition")
a. If you acquire something through a legal transfer, you entitled to it.
b. An illegal transfer is one which you do not consent to or are forced to consent to.
c. The state thus can act as an arbiter of justice here, but only if both individuals consent to bring it to court.
2. Rightful transfer entitles a person to something ("justice in transfer)
3. Previous wrongful transactions can be rectified (justice in rectification)
"Taxation of earnings from labor is on a par with forced labor... taking the earnings of n hours for another's the purpose" (Anarchy, State, and Utopia, p. 169)
Nozick summarized
As long as you follow the three principles of entitlement, any form of distribution is just. The state should not interfere with entitled property, since doing so means interfering with justice.
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