John Rawls And Utilitarianism :: Rawls Utilitarinism Philosophy Essays

The social contract theory of John Rawls challenges utilitarianism bypointing out the impracticality of the theory. Mainly, in a smart set ofutilitarians, a citizens rights could be all in all ignored if injustice to thisone citizen would benefit the rest of indian lodge. Rawls believes that a socialcontract theory, similar those proposed by Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau, would bea more logical settlement to the question of fairness in any government. Socialcontract theory in general and including the views of Rawls, is such that in asituation where a society is established of people who are self interested,rational, and couple, the rules of justice are established by what is mutuallyacceptable and agreed upon by all the people therein. This scenario ofnegotiating the laws of that society that will be commonly agreed upon andbeneficial to all is what Rawls terms The Original Position and Justification.Rawls states that for this system to work, all citizens must see themselves asbei ng behind a veil of ignorance. By this he means that all deciding partiesin establishing the guidelines of justice (all citizens) must see themselves asequal to everyone paying no mind to there economic situation or anything elsethat they could keep in mind to negotiate a better situation to those qualities.For example, if everyone in this society has an equal amount of influence towardthe establishing of specific laws, a rich man may propose that taxes should beequal for all rather than symmetric to ones assets. It is for this andsimilar situations that Rawls feels that everyone must become oblivious tothemselves. Rawls believes that the foundational guideline agreed upon by thethose in the original position will be composed of two parts. The showtime ofthese rules of justice being one that enforces equal rights and duties for allcitizens and the later of the two one which regulates the powers and wealth ofall citizens.In the conception of utilitarianism possessed by Rawls, an i nnocentspectator and ideal legislator are necessary components. The impartialspectator is one who rational and sensitive to all of the desires of society.The impartial spectator must feel these desires as if they were his own desiresand by doing such, give each of them priority over other desires and organizethem into one system from which the ideal legislator tries to maximizesatisfaction for all citizens by manipulating and adjusting the policy for thatsociety. By this theory of utilitarianism, Rawls argues that the decisionmaking process is being integrated into one conscience and that this system