Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T17:40:33.445Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A SATISFACTORY MINIMUM CONCEPTION OF JUSTICE: RECONSIDERING RAWLS'S MAXIMIN ARGUMENT

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 October 2013

Alexander Kaufman
Alexander Kaufman*
Affiliation:
University of Georgia, [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

John Rawls argues that it is possible to describe a suitably defined initial situation from which to form reliable judgements about justice. In this initial situation, rational persons are deprived of information that is ‘irrelevant from the standpoint of justice’. It is rational, Rawls argues, for persons choosing principles of justice from this standpoint to be guided by the maximin rule. Critics, however, argue that (i) the maximin rule is not the appropriate decision rule for Rawls's choice position; (ii) the maximin argument relies upon an imprecise account of the satisfactory minimum to be secured under the maximin rule; or that (iii) Rawls relies upon unrealistic assumptions about diminishing marginal value. These critics, I will suggest, argue from a number of assumptions that are confused or false. The satisfactory minimum that choosers in the original position – employing the maximin rule – seek to achieve is not a minimum level of primary goods, nor is the satisfactory minimum sought under the maximin rule supplied by the difference principle. I will argue that the maximin argument is more robust than has generally been recognized and that this argument performs a number of important functions in clarifying the nature and implications of Rawls's argument for justice as fairness.

Type
Articles
Information
Economics & Philosophy , Volume 29 , Issue 3 , November 2013 , pp. 349 - 369
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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

Agarwala, B. K. 1986. In defence of the use of maximin principle of choice under uncertainty in Rawls's original position. Indian Philosophical Quarterly 13: 250–254.Google Scholar
Allais, M. 1979. The foundations of a positive theory of choice involving risk and a criticism of postulates and axioms in the American school. In Expected Utility Hypotheses and the Allais Paradox, ed. Allais, M. and Hagen, O., 127–145. Dordrecht: Reidel.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Angner, E. 2004. Revisiting Rawls: A Theory of Justice in the light of Levi's theory of decision. Theoria 70: 3–21.Google Scholar
Arrow, K. J. 1973. Some Ordinalist-Utilitarian notes on Rawls's Theory of Justice. Journal of Philosophy 70: 245–263.Google Scholar
Barry, B. 1973. The Liberal Theory of Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Barry, B. 1989. Theories of Justice. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Binmore, K. 1994. Game Theory and the Social Contract, Volume I: Playing Fair. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Buchanan, A. 1980. A Critical Introduction to Rawls’ Theory of Justice. In John Rawls’ Theory of Social Justice: An Introduction, ed. Blocker, H. G. and Smith, E. H., 5–41. Athens, OH: Ohio State University.Google Scholar
Cohen, J. 1989. Democratic equality. Ethics 99: 727–751.Google Scholar
Corrado, G. 1980. Games, and economic theory. In John Rawls’ Theory of Social Justice: An Introduction, ed. Blocker, H. G. and Smith, E. H., 160–164. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press.Google Scholar
Ellsberg, D. 1961. Risk, ambiguity, and the Savage axioms. Quarterly Journal of Economics 75: 643–669.Google Scholar
Freeman, S. 2003. Introduction: John Rawls – An Overview. In The Cambridge Companion to Rawls, ed. Freeman, S., 1–61. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Goldman, H. S. 1980. Rawls and Utilitarianism. In John Rawls’ Theory of Justice, ed. Blocker, H. and Smith, E., 346–394. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press.Google Scholar
Hardin, R. 1988. Morality within the Limits of Reason. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hare, R. M. 1989. Essays on Political Morality. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Harsanyi, J. C. 1976. Can the Maximin Principle serve as a basis for morality? A Critique of Rawls's Theory. In Essays on Ethics, Social Behavior and Scientific Explanation, ed. Harsanyi, J. C., 37–63. Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Hausman, D. M. and McPherson, M. S.. 1996. Economic Analysis and Moral Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kymlicka, W. 1990. Contemporary Political Philosophy: An Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Levi, I. 1967. Gambling with Truth. New York: A. Knopf.Google Scholar
Levi, I. 1974 . On indeterminate probabilities. Journal of Philosophy 71: 391–418.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levi, I. 1980. The Enterprise of Knowledge: An Essay on Knowledge, Credal Probability and Chance. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Levi, I. 1984. Decisions and Revisions: Philosophical Essays on Knowledge and Value. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Levi, I. 1986. The Paradoxes of Allais and Ellsberg. Economics and Philosophy 2: 23–53.Google Scholar
Martin, R. 1985. Rawls and Rights. Lawrence, KA: University of Kansas Press.Google Scholar
McClennen, E. 1990. Rationality and Dynamic Choice: Foundational Explorations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pogge, T. W. 1989. Realizing Rawls. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Rawls, J. [1971] 1999. A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Rawls, J. 2001. Justice as Fairness: A Restatement, ed. Kelly, E.. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Roemer, J. 1998. Theories of Distributive Justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Sen, A. 1985. Rationality and uncertainty. Theory and Decision 81: 109–127.Google Scholar
Taylor, R. S. 2011. Reconstructing Rawls. University Park, PA: Penn State Press.Google Scholar
van Parijs, P. 2003. Difference principles. In The Cambridge Companion to Rawls, ed. Freeman, S., 200–240. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wolf, C. 2000. Fundamental rights, reasonable pluralism, and the moral commitments of liberalism. In The Idea of a Political Liberalism, ed. Davion, V. and Wolf, C., 102–126. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar