I shall argue my argument is influenced by John Rawl’s theory of justice as fairness. The equality principle is a segment of Justice as Fairness that represents distributive justice, and it is divided into two sections which include fair equality of opportunity and Discipline principle. The first one maintains that different positions should be made available to everyone irrespective of their sex, ethnicity and social status. The next part regulates inequalities such that in case of inequalities in the society it should occur in a way that it benefits the worst off and in this case, it is the people with the lowest income (Hayden, 54).
About the first principle which is addressed to the political institution, it means that every individual possesses equal basic liberties which cannot be violated or taken away by anyone even the government. According to a Rawls, every individual including corporations had a right to own property, but he did not include some rights such as rights to inherit wealth or own means of production because he did not consider this as basic liberties (Wenar, 21). Plato also believed in people’s rights to basic liberties and both Plato and Rawls ideologies relates in the opposition of the Utilitarian.
Also, in Plato’s book The Republic he provides detailed insights of a just society-based observance of fairness for all. Also, in The Republic Plato, he has a different approach in the way he defines justice because he uses a psychological approach where he describes justice as harmony in a structured political structure where different groups of people. Plato’s definition of justice was centered on specialization which required different people to fulfill their societal role without interfering with others role.
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He also had a belief that individual justice mirrored political justice (Vlastos, 34). Rawls drew his argument of basic liberties here because according to Plato everyone in the society has his/her rights as explained through the concept of specialization and no one can infringe these basic rights as producers should not interfere with a guardian role.
Justice is Fairness because everyone has their rights and these rights givens one the liberty to do what one wants given that one conforms with the laws and the norms of the society. When everyone is given equal treatment treated regardless of their social class, color and gender there is fairness which creates a just society. About Plato allegory is applicable in this concept because most people are in the cave and they do not know about their rights and they believe what they hear they also believe in other people’s ideas who they think is the master (Hall, 82).
The second principle presented by Rawls is about equality that everyone should be given an equal chance in offices and position if each person in this context has equal qualifications and one should not be favored due to his social status, ethnicity or sex. The first principle was about liberty of every member of the society, the second one was about the equality of every member of the society, and the last one was about the independence of every citizen as a member of the Commonwealth (Brooks, 15).
According to Kant people have basic liberties which the state should respect and protect, and everyone in the state should have the same rights regardless of their differences so that the law can be established and applied in the same manner.
In conclusion, Rawls’ Justice as Fairness is a concept of social justices and he came up with two principles of liberty and equality. The first principle is about basic liberties, and it affirms that individuals or citizens ought to have basic liberties such as freedom to speech
