RAWLS’S CONTRACTARIAN THEORY….………….………………………………. 3

RAWLS’S ETHICAL PRINCIPLES OF JUSTICE……………………………………. 5

CRITICS OF RAWLS………………..……………………………………………….. 6

PERSONAL ASSESSMENT.....……..……………………………………………….. 8

Who was John Rawls and why is he important?

John Borden Rawls was born in 1921 into a rich Baltimore family, studied and taught at prestigious universities abroad, which included Oxford, Princeton and Harvard, just to name a few. Today, he has been acknowledged as America’s, and quite possibly the world’s, leading political philosopher. One factor I found interesting in my research is that Rawls doesn’t represent a philosophical theory that dates back to hundreds of years ago (eg. Aristotal, Plato or Kant), but rather represents a powerful and influential argument relating to our current times.

Rawls’s political views and theories focused on the epi-center of justice as it relates to our personal freedoms.

A final element that I think relates the two philosophies is Rawls’s Veil of Ignorance and how it closely compares to the Utilitarian view that choices should be made without regard to ones current beliefs, their current position in society, etc. Although I think the conceptually agree with each other, I again completely disagree with this concept of people being capable of rendering decisions or choices without forethought on what it would mean to them personally. Our society believes in the “Bigger, Better, Deal”. Given that mentality, which I think represents 95%+ of our society, that likelihood of finding qualified representatives that can block out all personal feeling on any manner is an impossibility.

Some topics in this essay:
Veil Ignorance, Justice Critics, Veil Ignorance”, Robert Nizick, Plato Kant, PERSONAL ASSESSMENT, Self Assessment, Fairness” Rawls, Utilitarianism I’m, Chosen Secondly, theory justice, rawls’s theory, veil ignorance, rawls’s theory justice, rendering decisions, basic structure, basic structure society, structure society, rawls’s contractarian, rawls’s ethical principles, personal assessment, rawls’s contractarian theory, selected representatives, conceptually agree, � theory justice,