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 I know that sometimes Rawls speaks like a Kantian -- as though his original position will somehow give us principles that any rational person would accept. Rawls wanted to avoid sticky questions about 'objective' moral truth and knowledge by substituting a contract as the basis of his conception of justice. But even the contract was not intended to deliver results that any rational being would have to accept. As time went on, he began to speak of his conception of justice as "political" and not "metaphysical." I think he rejected the Kantian view and became more pragmatic -- in other words, he became more and more concerned to find a conception of justice that could help stabilize society because it was shared by groups with very different world views. He referred to those different world views as "comprehensive doctrines." The Original Position can be seen as a construct derived from certain ideas about justice that are deeply embedded in American culture. It is set up the way it is exactly because of those ideas. Therefore, it is not based on anything universal and it does not seek to produce anything universal. It is actually embedded in our culture and claims to be nothing more. Instead of producing results that any ration person must accept, the Original Position produces results that any rational American must accept. The Stanford encyclopedia of Philosophy article on the "Original Position" discusses two interpretations of Rawls' OP. One is the "epistemological" interpretation. It sees the OP as a device for getting a clear view of objective moral principles. Rawls shied away from this sort of moral realism. Another interpretation is a "political" interpretation. It sees the OP as a device that depends very much on certain ideas about justice embedded in a culture and widely shared. The parties in the OP draw out the implications of those ideas. QUOTE the Stanford article. |
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