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Analysis Of John Rawls's Theory Of Justice

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THIS PROJECT HAS BEEN SUBMITTED BY

ANANYA MISHRA
214026
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(JURISPRUDENCE)

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2016-17

INTRODUCTION:

John Rawls developed a conception of justice as fairness in his classic work A Theory of Justice. Using elements of both Kantian and utilitarian philosophy, he has described a method for the moral evaluation of social and political institutions.
Rawls proposes to develop a theory of justice by revising the social contract tradition of theorizing about justice associated with the 17th and 18th century writers John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Immanuel Kant. Locke sees legitimate political authority being derived from the free and voluntary consent of the governed, from a contract or agreement between governor and those who are being governed. Rawls says he will take the social contract idea to a higher level of abstraction. According to Rawls, justice is what free and equal persons would agree to as basic terms of social cooperation in conditions that are fair for this purpose. This idea he calls "justice as fairness." The conditions that Rawls takes to be most appropriate for the choice of principles of justice constitute what he calls the "original position."
If an individual has taken over the task of developing a totally new social contract for today 's society. Is there a possibility of him being fair? Although it is hard to completely eliminate all his prejudices and biases, one would need to take steps at least to

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