Oakeshott and Rawls as Successors to the ‘Social Contract Theory’ for the Origin of Society, Justice, Rights and Duties: A Critical Analysis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.53762/alnasr.02.03.e07Abstract
Since the inceptions of biological lives, the pages of history are full of evidence that not only human beings but also all the rest of biological existents have ever strived to safeguard their lives as well as their possessions. But life is not a smooth highway, there are many hurdles and a lot of trespassers who not only assault others’ lives or usurp the possession or usurp or destroy the property of others. Thus there emerged the concept of one’s rights and the duty of others. For this idea, there was a need for a ruling authority that could safeguard the rights of the suppressed and punish the oppressors. Thus there needed to be a ruler or a head along with a code of laws to decide based on Justice. That was the preamble of establishing a society or the raw idea of the Social Contract theory. Here is a critical, comparative and logical analysis of various aspects of this theory, presented by many thinkers.
References
The Winston Dictionary: Encyclopedia Edition, s.v. “Justice.”
The Greek title which designates the constitution or political organization of a polis (city-state).
Allan Bloom,1968. During the discussion for the definition of Justice, many definitions were the points of debate and all of them analyzed in that dialogue.
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Ibid.
Alan Fuchs, Rawls, 2006.
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Ibid., 10-12 . By fairness he meant that the parties had chosen the principles of justice in such a situation in which no one was aware of one’s different aspects and circumstances on the one hand; and in the condition of status quo in which the principles were chosen on fair basis. The participant as being rational, moral and free persons made them with their own choices to further their interests in the situation of equality on the other hand. Those principles were supposed to govern and regulate the subsequent agreements of co-operations and institutions. In this way that theory was termed as justice as fairness and justice as institutional structure of society.
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John Rawls, A Theory of Justice revised edition. (Harvard: The Belkenap Press, 1971), 11.
“The original position of equality corresponds to the state of nature in the traditional theory of the social contract.” That Original Position must not be considered as something Original or actual historical sate rather it was just a hypothesis as he called it a purely hypothetical situation which was supposed to lead to a theory of justice.
John Rawls, A Theory of Justice revised edition. (Harvard: The Belkenap Press, 1971), 11.
That Veil means such a position in which everyone was unaware of one’s place, position, status or class in that society and even did not know anything about one’s own fortune regarding the division of natural abilities e.g. intelligence or strength etc. They were even ignorant of their psychological inclinations and also had no concept of good.
Ibid., 53.
Ibid., 293.
Donald Borchert. ed., Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 614.
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