Qn. 25. Consider: “…we believe that as a matter of principle, each member of society has an inviolability founded on justice.” (Rawls) (1999/I/4c/30)
The statement about man having “an inviolability founded on justice” was made by American political philosopher John Rawls, to uphold the sanctity of human dignity, and criticise utilitarian view of justice. It is his de-ontological principle of human dignity. Utilitarians, pursue utility or the greatest good of the greatest numbers.
Harvard professor and social-contract philosopher Rawls, in pursuit of social justice, propounded his ‘A Theory of Justice’ (1971). Here, he quotes that “justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought. A theory, however elegant and economical, must be rejected or revised if it is untrue; like-wise laws and institutions no matter how efficient and well-arranged must be reformed or abolished if they are unjust. Each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override.” So, justice being the first virtue of the social institution, must consider human dignity as the ultimate ideal. Rawls points out that utilitarian principles may well be arbitrary and are independent of (and thus not governed by) a conception of the right.
Further, Rawlsian justice “does not allow that the sacrifices imposed on a few are outweighed by the larger sum of advantages enjoyed by many.” Simply, Rawls rejects utilitarian form of justice. He sees utilitarian distribution as non-fulfilment of distributive and social justice. And he finishes his argument by saying that: “in a just society, the liberties of equal citizenship are taken as settled; the rights secured by justice are not subject to political bargaining or to the calculus of social interests.” Here, political bargaining refers to the disproportionate weightage attached to the “greater good”. Utilitarians such as Bentham tend to subordinate individual to the collectivity i.e., teleological or goal- oriented justice. Although some utilitarians like J. S. Mill accorded primacy to moral worth of a policy (to restore dignity of individual), it is Rawls, who overwhelmingly reinforced this idea.
Rawls’ thought experiment puts man in the ‘original position’, behind a ‘veil of ignorance’, to rationally decide unbiased principles of justice. Rawls produced two principles – liberty and equality. Liberty principle ensures basic liberties of man, while equality principle consists of ‘equality of opportunity’ and the ‘difference principle’ (favouring the disadvantaged). The ‘difference principle’ can be said to a direct counter to core utilitarianism, by seeking disproportionate advantage to the worst off in society.
Rawls attempted to show the inadequacy of the “maximisation of the good” in society. Social justice dictates that society must structure its institutions to provide the maximum satisfaction for all. Rawls’ theory is an important perspective to the contested concept of justice.