The Project Of Justice In A Pluralistic Society

The Project of Justice in a Pluralistic Society: A Research on Rawls's"Social Unity Theory"of Political LiberalismRawls's political liberalism aims at meeting the following challenge of the"fact of reasonable pluralism"in modern society: how is social unity based on the right reasons possible in a society of free and equal citizens, who remain profoundly divided by reasonable religious, philosophical, and moral"comprehensive doctrines"? Furthermore, how can this society achieve social justice, stability and legal legitimacy on the basis of consensus and social unity? Although Rawls has clearly put forward the issue of social unity, he constructs an extremely abstract and complex system of ideas of political liberalism to resolve this problem. This has led a large part of scholars in this field to misunderstand Rawls's political liberalism, or even underestimate its theoretical significance inasmuch as they neglected or confused social unity which represents its question awareness.For this reason, in order to grasp the inner logic of the theory, as a response to the above situations, this dissertation follows"the reconstructive approach based upon Rawls's question awareness", starting with the question awareness of Rawls's political liberalism, referring to his theorization effort around this issue as the"social unity theory"of political liberalism, and reconstructing the theory by putting it into its social background and Rawls's theoretical context. Moreover, this dissertation also follows"the approach of combining the internal perspectives with the external ones"to inquire its contributions and limits.First of all, this dissertation examines the theoretical background of the"social unity theory"and points out that the mainstream view that Rawls's transition to political liberalism is driven by certain communitarian critiques is of no ground. The author maintains that the"social unity theory"can be regarded as a self-adjustment of the inner tension in A Theory of Justice which presupposes that the society is relatively homogeneous, a presupposition which is in conflict with a modern pluralistic society, and as a response to the"social unity problem"in a pluralistic society that A Theory of Justice can not resolve. Secondly, this dissertation reconstructs the"social unity theory"based on the study of its argumentation basis. The argument is that instead of pursuing the ethical ideal of a good life, the theory deals with the basic social rules about how we can live together, a question closely related to the basic demands of law, and concentrates on how we can"expand our consensus and narrow our differences"on the basis of liberal"political conceptions of justice". Therefore, based upon the transformation from"moral constructivism"to the"political constructivism", it converts the conception of justice deeply rooted in the Kantian comprehensive doctrines into a freestanding political conception implicit in the"public political culture"of a democratic society, both avoiding the debates around truth and getting its self-sufficient conception of objectivity. With the"well-ordered society"as its ideal social picture, the theory lays out three levels of argumentation to discuss the political ideals it aims to realize and the approaches to their realization. The argument of justice explains how the liberal conceptions of justice can be affirmed by various comprehensive doctrines on account of moral acceptability. The argument of stability explains how a certain liberal conception of justice can be the focus of an"overlapping consensus"among citizens who adhere to different comprehensive doctrines in real social world, and how this process can enforce a stable conception of justice and a stable social order for the right reasons. The argument of legitimacy explains how the citizens can solidify their consensus as legitimate laws so as to legally protect social justice and stability. For the purpose of realizing the abovementioned political ideals, Rawls also constructs legal institutions around the regime, state and citizen which are adapted to the"social unity theory".Thirdly, this dissertation examines the ultimate authority of the conceptions of justice and the deep roots of social unity and draws the conclusions that differ from some communitarians: Rawls not only regards the democratic society as a society of"social union"with its members taking social cooperation as their inner demand, but also regards it as a society of"social embeddedness"with its members greatly shaped by social forms and social traditions. The ultimate authority of the liberal political conceptions of justice and the deep roots of social unity both take root in the social forms and social traditions which are the results of the collective political and social practice of generations of social members.Finally, this dissertation deals with the contributions of the"social unity theory". The argument is that, seen from its own development and self-expectation, Rawls's"social unity theory"not only responds to the problem that A Theory of Justice can not resolve, but also promotes the paradigm shift of liberalism from certain comprehensive liberalisms to political liberalism. In contrast to the"comprehensive theories"which inquire moral truth and the theory of"modus vivendi"which is the successor of Hobbes, the project of"social unity theory"can be seen as a"realistic utopia". Implanting the practical concerns in theories, the theory claims that political and legal philosophy is supposed to play a practical role and the roles of orientation and reconciliation. Keeping the most proper balance between ideal and reality, it admits that any political or legal solution is bound to be constrained by the conditions of any given time and space, and it designs a certain"reality-ideal structure"for the process of social unity, with various levels of political goals from the bottom to the top. Furthermore, tamping the moral basis of the political, it aims at the maintenance of the equal moral personality of every citizen through political and legal institutions. The"realistic utopian"face of the"social unity theory"is closely related to Rawls's"ultimate concerns"throughout his theoretical development: whether and to what extent human life is redeemable? How can we model a"realistic utopia"as an ultimate moral goal for our collective life to banish the dangers of resignation and cynicisms and to enhance the value of our lives?However, if we leave Rawls's own question awareness, theoretical presuppositions and logic of argument, we may find that there are still some spaces for the"social unity theory"to develop, especially its moral and philosophical foundations. In these aspects, the critique from Jürgen Habermas and Michael Sandel, and the advancement of Charles Larmore and George Crowder have offered useful directions for the improvement of Rawls's"social unity theory".