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John Rawls has been described as the foremost political philosopher of the twentieth century. His philosophy is aligned with Kant and addresses both the ethical forms of political systems and economic theories. This 6 page paper addresses Rawls' concepts of Original Position and Difference Principle in terms of comparison with Libertarianism, Marxist principles and programs appropriate to the United States. Bibliography lists 4 sources.
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6 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_KTjrawls.doc
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of political systems and economic theories. The Original position, according to Rawls, "may be viewed . . . as a procedural interpretation of Kants conception of autonomy" (256), constructed
in such a way that "[b]y acting from the principles [selected by the parties] persons express their nature as free and equal rational beings" (252). Rawls continues to explain
the "[o]ne reason for [acting on these principles], for persons who can and want to, is to give expression to [their autonomous] nature" (253). Within the original position, "the
parties . . . have complete freedom to choose whatever principles they wish . . . they also have a desire to express their nature as rational and equal members
of the intelligible realm" (255), and it is this desire, in part, that leads them to select the principles of justice, which describe, according to Rawls, "an ethic of mutual
respect and self-esteem" (256). Rawls seems to attribute only self-interested motives to the people in the original position, however, he also states that all of the parties to the
original position are "presumed to be capable of a sense of justice ... [and, therefore, they] can rely on each other to understand and to act in accordance with whatever
principles are finally agreed to" (145). He argues that people who possess a "sense of justice" would have a desire to live according to principles of justice (46 and
191-92). "According to Rawls theory of justice, once the requirements of the First Principle of Justice -- the Equal Basic Liberties Principle -- have been satisfied, and once Fair
Equality of Opportunity exists, then the Difference Principle comes into play. This principle requires that the basic structure of a society be organized so that all social and economic
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