Rawls’s Theory of Justice From A Utilitarian Perspective

摘要

I am very attracted to the theory Rawls has put forth in A Theory of Justice. I feel that he gives a good explanation of how principles of justice can to be arrived at in order to have a fair and just society. However, I do not think that Rawls’s way of doing this is the only way. In many ways, it seems that utilitarianism can be used to justify the same principles that Rawls is advocating. Specifically, it seems that his notion of the veil of ignorance is just a tool used to decide principles in an essentially utilitarian manner. So, for the purpose of this paper, I will note the similarities between Rawls’s notion of the veil of ignorance and utilitarianism, and I will argue that by using this concept, Rawls is really advocating a kind of utilitarian reasoning.