Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T07:22:00.832Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

THE INSTABILITY OF JOHN RAWLS'S “STABILITY FOR THE RIGHT REASONS”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2017

Abstract

John Rawls's most mature notion of political order is “stability for the right reasons.” Stability for the right reasons is the kind of political order that Rawls hoped a well-ordered society could ideally achieve. In this paper, I demonstrate through the tools of modern game theory, the instability of “stability for the right reasons.” Specifically, I will show that a well-ordered society can completely destabilize by the introduction of an arbitrarily small number of non-compliers whenever individuals fail to achieve full common knowledge ever so slightly.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Chung, H. 2015. ‘Hobbes’ State of Nature: A Modern Bayesian Game-Theoretic Analysis.Journal of the American Philosophical Association, 1(3): 485508.Google Scholar
Chung, H. 2017. ‘Public Reason, Convergence Discourse, and the Well-Ordered Society under Crisis.’ Unpublished manuscript, https://ssrn.com/abstract=2862832.Google Scholar
Gaus, G. 2011. ‘A Tale of Two Sets: Public Reason in Equilibrium.’ Public Affairs Quarterly, 25(4): 305–25.Google Scholar
Gaus, G. 2016. ‘Consensus on What? Convergence for What?: Four Models of Political Liberalism.’ Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Hadfield, G. and Macedo, S. 2012. ‘Rational Reasonableness: Toward a Positive Theory of Public Reason.’ Law and Ethics of Human Rights, 6(1): 146.Google Scholar
Hadfield, G. and Weingast, B. 2012. ‘What is Law? A Coordination Model of the Characteristics of Legal Order.’ Journal of Legal Analysis, 4(2): 471514.Google Scholar
Hobbes, T. 1994. Leviathan (with selected variants from the Latin edition of 1668). Edited, with Introduction, by Curley, E.. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett.Google Scholar
Kavka, G. 1989. ‘Political Contractarianism.’ Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Kogelmann, B. and Stich, S. 2016. ‘When Public Reason Fails Us: Convergence Discourse as Blood Oath.American Political Science Review, 110(4): 717–30.Google Scholar
Lewis, D. 2002. Convention – A Philosophical Study. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Osborne, M. 2004. An Introduction to Game Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rawls, J. 1971/1999. A Theory of Justice, Revised edition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Rawls, J. 1993/2005. Political Liberalism – Expanded Edition. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Rawls, J. 2001. Justice as Fairness – A Restatement. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Skyrms, B. 2004. The Stag Hunt and the Evolution of Social Structure. Cambridge: Cambridge University PressGoogle Scholar
Skyrms, B. 2010. Signals – Evolution, Learning, and Information. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Thrasher, J. and Vallier, K. 2015. ‘The Fragility of Consensus: Public Reason, Diversity and Stability.’ European Journal of Philosophy, 23(4): 933–54. doi: 10.1111/ejop.12020.Google Scholar
Vanderschraaf, P. 2006. ‘War or Peace?: A Dynamical Analysis of Anarchy.’ Economics and Philosophy, 22: 243–79.Google Scholar
Vanderschraaf, P. Forthcoming. ‘Learning Bargaining Conventions.’ Social Philosophy and Policy.Google Scholar