A Theory Of Moral Justice

As one of the world famous academic great masters, Rawls'theory of justice covers various domains of philosophy, politics, economics, law and sociology. However, all over the word, especially in China, the studies on Rawls'ideas are mostly concentrated on his political philosophy, but are merely carried on from the ethical perspective. Moral Justice is parallelism with Political Justice, but Rawls has only given a systematic elaboration on the latter while without probing the former during his lifetime. Actually he also attempted to construct A Theory of Moral Justice, but didn't realize it until his death. Thus, the aim of my dissertation is to study Rawls'theory of moral ideas, and to try to use this as a general academic resource to probe the general theory of moral justice.The idea of Rawls'Moral Justice can generally be considered to be consisted as the integration of four parts: value precondition and principles; the foundation of value and its structure; value method and value transcendence. In the first part, Rawls argues that Two Principles of Justice are the value principles of Moral Justice, and as well the social and individual essential moral principles, which cover freedom principles, equality principles and difference principles. They have relatively in exchangeable order with each other and each has its own rational value. The value precondition of the Original Position, especially the Veil of Ignorance, set the theoretical base for the rationality of each moral principle. In the second part, Rawls emphasizes the possibility and validity of Moral Justice. He argues the principles of Moral Justice can be in conformity to practical political, economic and cultural systems and provide them with value reference of rationality, and the principles of Moral Justice can also be in conformity to individual moral mind. Its ethical causes lie in that the sense of Moral Justice which is a part of humanity is also that of individual's moral sense. If Rawls has justified the exterior rationality of Moral Justice in the first and second parts, he justifies the internal rationality in the third part. In this part, Rawls suggests that the contract method and the reflective equilibrium method are the methods of value of Moral Justice, wherein the former is primary, and the latter is subordinate. The latter method embodies the equilibrium between morality theory and morality practice, and also the equilibrium between morality rules and moral common sense, and so on. In the fourth part, namely in the value transcendence of Moral Justice, Rawls discusses the universal property of truth of Moral Justice. He argues that the theory of Moral Justice can't be only limited to the rationality of one nationality or one comprehensive theory. So it should be applied to all the other nationalities and theories as possible, and become their basis for value rationality. Thus the thought of Moral Justice should surpass the notion of value of specific country and face Peoples Society.As the value precondition of Moral Justice, each factor in the Original Position has both intuitive commonsensible rationality and universality which surpasses the limitations of the specific history and nationality. This precondition establishes theoretical base for rationality of value principles. Positively speaking, without the Veil of Ignorance and the Formal Conditions on Principles and so on, individualself-indulgence will not be removed in establishing moral principles. It is a pity that under the influence of west traditions, Rawls confirms that the principles of Moral Justice, i.e. freedom, equality and difference principles are in lexical order. However, the life and the survival principle and individual perfection principle are excluded from his principle system. In human civilization, the life and survival principle should have priority over all the other ones. Individual perfection principle should also be ranked in the system although it has no priority in the principle system. In social validity discussion of Moral Justice, Rawls is doubted to have the intention to justify the U.S. society, which may be unavoidable. But he subconsciously looks on faith of natural morality as subjective conditions which guarantee other principles'validity. He doesn't and can't explain rationally whether moral irrationality is the precondition of morality rationality. In discussing the individual value validity of Moral Justice, Rawls can't avoid arguing in a circle, which social freedom with equality and individual freedom with equality are reciprocally preconditioned. The method of Rawls'Theory of Justice is mainly the method of social contract, but the method of Moral Justice should be mainly the method of reflective equilibrium, although Rawls doesn't emphasize this. Rawls'"Contract"is fully fictitious, imaginary, no-argy-bargy styled individual monolog, which is widely divergent from traditional"contract". It shows that the value precondition, principles, basis and structure can change its attribute to in-itself and for-itself from in-itself, and can achieve value subject's self-conscious rational affirmation only by the individual's internal self-reflection. Therefore the reflective equilibrium is coincident with the monolog"contract", and well adaptive to be the value method of Moral Justice. It is a universal trend that morality theory develops from individual to a group, a society, a nation and a country, and finally to the world. Rawls'Moral Justice Idea is also in accordance with these three steps. Peoples Moral Justice theoretically enlarges the using of Moral Justice. But this is difficult to realize and can result in value hegemony in culture and civilization with western marks. However if it is put in the international society, it has much positive rationality. In all, the idea of Rawls'Moral Justice has both rationality and limitation. Its rationality is primary, and its limitation is secondary. Rawls'moral idea includes more value rationality than the other moral philosophy.The study of Rawls'Moral Justice Idea mainly provides theoretical and practical significance. In theory, the study of his theory of justice can be deepened and systematized, and can make up our shortage of traditional ethical study. Chinese traditional ethics emphasizes individual perfection while it ignores social perfection, so moral norms are set down by oracles, generalized by politics, and followed by others. Rawls'Moral Justice Idea shows that social perfection and individual perfection are both necessary. But the former takes precedence of the latter. Moral principles are set down and complied all by individuals. Hence, our traditional philosophy is heteronomous, and Rawls'is autonomic. We must absorb the elite of his Moral Justice to thrive our ethics. In practice, this study is in favor of Chinese harmonious society construction in the present stage. Many times, Rawls claims that his Theory of Moral Justice fits all kinds of ideology, including Chinese socialism. In the idea of social distribution and equality, he greatly succeeds Carl Marx's ideas. So, all these make it possible for us to use Rawls'idea for reference in China. Rawls justifies the harmoniousness between moral universality and particularity, and the harmoniousness between moral oneness and variety, which brings positive effects on the construction of harmonious society in China.There may be mainly two deficiencies in my dissertation. Firstly, whether the establishment of Moral Justice has embodied Rawls'original idea is awaited to be discussed and contended further. Any un-scrambler is inevitably influenced by his special experience and theoretical attainments. I may be one of them with possible self-indulgence. Secondly, whether the mechanism of Moral Justice obviously differentiates that of Economic Justice, and that of non-Rawls'Political Justice, and so on, is still awaitedto be explored further. The system of Moral Justice has been established and the conjunction to Rawls'Political Justice has also been expounded in this dissertation, but whether the conception of Moral Justice is rational needs to study further.