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
- 153 Paternalism
- 154 Peoples
- 155 Perfectionism
- 156 Plan of life
- 157 Pogge, Thomas
- 158 Political conception of justice
- 159 Political liberalism, justice as fairness as
- 160 Political liberalisms, family of
- 161 Political obligation
- 162 Political virtues
- 163 Practical reason
- 164 Precepts of justice
- 165 Primary goods, social
- 166 The priority of the right over the good
- 167 Procedural justice
- 168 Promising
- 169 Property-owning democracy
- 170 Public choice theory
- 171 Public political culture
- 172 Public reason
- 173 Publicity
- R
- S
- T
- U
- W
- Bibliography
- Index
164 - Precepts of justice
from P
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
- 153 Paternalism
- 154 Peoples
- 155 Perfectionism
- 156 Plan of life
- 157 Pogge, Thomas
- 158 Political conception of justice
- 159 Political liberalism, justice as fairness as
- 160 Political liberalisms, family of
- 161 Political obligation
- 162 Political virtues
- 163 Practical reason
- 164 Precepts of justice
- 165 Primary goods, social
- 166 The priority of the right over the good
- 167 Procedural justice
- 168 Promising
- 169 Property-owning democracy
- 170 Public choice theory
- 171 Public political culture
- 172 Public reason
- 173 Publicity
- R
- S
- T
- U
- W
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
As Rawls defines it, “intuitionism” is the doctrine that holds that there is “a plurality of first principles which may conflict to give contrary directives in particular cases,” and that there is “no explicit method, no priority rules, for weighing these principles against one another: we are simply to strike a balance by intuition, by what seems to us most nearly right” (TJ 30). Our pre-philosophical moral sense is intuitionistic, as we rely on “groups of rather specific precepts, each group applying to a particular problem of justice” (TJ 31). We use these various common-sense precepts intuitively to determine things like a fair wage, just taxation, and appropriate punishments. Justice as fairness holds that since an intuitionistic theory does not assign weights to its various precepts, it is “but half a conception” (TJ 37). On the other hand, because justice as fairness aims to describe our moral sense in reflective equilibrium, and because the various precepts are intuitively plausible, Rawls wants to explain how justice as fairness captures their plausibility, even if none can properly be elevated to the position of the sole standard of justice.
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- Information
- The Cambridge Rawls Lexicon , pp. 640 - 642Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2014