Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Abbreviations for Rawls’s texts
- Introduction
- A
- B
- C
- D
- E
- F
- G
- H
- I
- J
- K
- L
- M
- N
- O
- P
- R
- S
- 195 Sandel, Michael
- 196 Scanlon, T. M.
- 197 Self-interest
- 198 Self-respect
- 199 Sen, Amartya
- 200 Sense of justice
- 201 Sidgwick, Henry
- 202 Sin
- 203 Social choice theory
- 204 Social contract
- 205 Social minimum
- 206 Social union
- 207 Socialism
- 208 Society of peoples
- 209 Soper, Philip
- 210 Sovereignty
- 211 Stability
- 212 Statesman and duty of statesmanship
- 213 Strains of commitment
- 214 Supreme Court and judicial review
- T
- U
- W
- Bibliography
- Index
206 - Social union
from S
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2015
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Abbreviations for Rawls’s texts
- Introduction
- A
- B
- C
- D
- E
- F
- G
- H
- I
- J
- K
- L
- M
- N
- O
- P
- R
- S
- 195 Sandel, Michael
- 196 Scanlon, T. M.
- 197 Self-interest
- 198 Self-respect
- 199 Sen, Amartya
- 200 Sense of justice
- 201 Sidgwick, Henry
- 202 Sin
- 203 Social choice theory
- 204 Social contract
- 205 Social minimum
- 206 Social union
- 207 Socialism
- 208 Society of peoples
- 209 Soper, Philip
- 210 Sovereignty
- 211 Stability
- 212 Statesman and duty of statesmanship
- 213 Strains of commitment
- 214 Supreme Court and judicial review
- T
- U
- W
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The notion of social union is central to A Theory of Justice in which the just society is described as a “social union of social unions” (TJ 462). In effect, the idea expresses Rawls’s view of “human sociability” and is meant to deflect charges that his contract doctrine cannot account for the “value of community” (TJ 456).
According to Rawls, our social nature is all too often described in “a trivial” fashion (TJ 458). One repeatedly hears, for instance, that we are “social creatures” or that society is necessary for human life, for acquiring language and certain interests, even for our ability to think. These facts are not trivial but to claim that our social nature consists in them is inadequate, for all these facts are equally true of a group of egoists. Egoists too cannot learn to speak nor develop their selfish ways outside specific human communities. Genuine human sociability entails something more; it requires social union.
Rawls’s idea of social union is drawn up in explicit contrast to that of “private society” or that form of social organization distinguished by two features: individuals comprising it have their own exclusive ends, either competing or independent, but in any case not complementary, and they view their social relations and institutions as means to these private ends (TJ 458). The “natural habitat” of this idea is the economic theory of competitive markets, and it can already be found in the thought of A. Smith and in Hegel’s notion of civil society (TJ 459 n.4).
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- Information
- The Cambridge Rawls Lexicon , pp. 788 - 790Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2014