John Rawls · Philosophy
What the parties choose behind the veil: first, an equal scheme of basic liberties for all; then, fair equality of opportunity and the ‘difference principle’ - the rule that social and economic inequalities are just only if they work to the greatest benefit of the least advantaged.
The original position is the machinery; the two principles are what comes out of it. Rawls argues that parties behind the veil would agree on two principles, in a strict order. The first principle guarantees each person an equal claim to a fully adequate scheme of basic liberties - freedom of thought and conscience, political liberties, freedom of association, the rule of law, the freedom and integrity of the person. The second principle governs social and economic inequalities, and has two parts: positions must be open to all under conditions of fair equality of opportunity, and inequalities are permitted only insofar as they work to the greatest benefit of the least advantaged members of society. This second, egalitarian clause is the one Rawls made famous: the difference principle. Together the two principles form a distinctive position - liberal in its fierce protection of individual freedoms, egalitarian in its refusal to let the market’s winners keep everything the lottery of birth throws their way.
The two principles are not equal partners; they stand in what Rawls calls lexical order. The first principle takes absolute priority over the second: you may not sacrifice anyone’s basic liberties for the sake of greater economic benefits, not even large ones. A society may not, on Rawls’s view, sell off some people’s political rights or freedom of conscience in exchange for a bigger economic pie, however the pie is sliced. Within the second principle, too, there is an order: fair equality of opportunity takes priority over the difference principle, so you may not deny people fair access to positions merely because doing so would enrich the least advantaged. This ranking captures a core liberal conviction: once a society has reached a decent level of development, the basic liberties are not commodities to be balanced against prosperity but the very framework within which the pursuit of prosperity must operate. Freedom is foundational, not for sale.
Behind the difference principle lies a moral claim that many find bracing and some find outrageous: that the distribution of natural talents is, from a moral point of view, arbitrary. You did not earn your intelligence, your health, your drive, or the family and era you were born into; these are the results of a ‘natural lottery’ you did nothing to deserve. It does not follow, Rawls says, that we should try to erase these differences - that would be neither possible nor desirable. What follows is that no one has a prior moral claim to the rewards that their unearned talents happen to command in the market. The talented may keep incentives, but only on terms that also benefit those who drew shorter straws. In this way the difference principle treats the distribution of natural gifts as, in effect, a common asset: the gifted are welcome to profit from their gifts, provided the arrangement that lets them do so also improves the prospects of the least fortunate. Nobody is used as a mere means, and nobody’s luck is simply cashed in at others’ expense.
This is the opening of the lesson. The rest — the dialogue, the primary source, and the recall — is in the app.
You learned Rawls’s two principles and their order: (1) equal basic liberties, with priority; (2a) fair equality of opportunity and (2b) the difference principle - inequalities permitted only if they benefit the least advantaged. Explain both principles, their lexical priority, and the idea behind the difference princ…
Leads to John Locke.
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