8/19/2019 Criticism of Rawls

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Criticism of Rawls

Some critics argued that Rawls' Justice as Fairness principles did not allow enough tolerance fordifferent religious and strongly held beliefs. If, for example, people belong to a religion thatteaches men and women are unequal in certain parts of life, those beliefs would contradict Rawls'

principles about equality of basic liberties and equal opportunity.

he most contro!ersial part of Rawls' theory of "ustice centered on his #ifference $rinciple, theidea that the greatest benefit should go to the least ad!antaged. %onser!ati!e and free&mar etcritics argued that it is unfair to ta e from the most ad!antaged people what they ha!e earned andredistribute it for the benefit of the less fortunate. hey also argued that explanations for how

people come to be in more or less ad!antaged positions is rele!ant to fairness. For example,some people deser!e a higher le!el of material goods because of their hard wor or contributionsto society.

Rawls himself ac nowledged that his !ision for a "ust society was (highly ideali)ed.( *e alsoadmitted that there was little support for his #ifference $rinciple (in our public culture at the

present time.( Rawls responded to his critics by re&thin ing and re!ising elements of his theory.

+!en after he retired in -- , Rawls wrote other boo s on political philosophy, international "ustice, and human rights. ut he ne!er really finished A Theory of Justice. *e considered it awor in progress up to his death at age / in 0110.