An Analysis Of Stability In Rawls's Theory Of Justice

This paper mainly discusses the stability problem which occupies an important position in Rawls' s theory of justice,but has not attracted enough attention.In A Theory of Justice,Rawls used nearly one-third of article's length to deal with stability,and in Political Liberalism,stability has become the fundamental reason for Rawls' s theoretical turn.Despite this importance,the issue of stability has not been taken seriously by the academic circles,which is largely caused by the fact that Rawls' s stability is regarded as a solution to social stability and has nothing to do with the moral justification of the concept of justice.Although in Rawls' s theory of justice,the stability of the concept of justice contributes to the achievement of social stability,it remains social in character,which is different from the social stability after applying the concept of justice to society.The former,on the other hand,focuses on the legitimacy of the concept of justice and moral justification.As a theoretical justification problem,it depends on whether the concept of justice can produce enough self-supporting power,while social stability focuses on the stability of the internal structure of society,as a practical problem,it is a question of how to make the society persist after the principle of justice has been proved.By combing the connotation of the stability problem in Rawls 's theory of justice,this paper probes into the reasons for the misunderstanding of stability in the academic circles,and tries to clarify the essence of the stability problem in Rawls' s theory of Justice according to Rawls' s exposition on the stability problem and the clues of correction.Specifically,it is divided into three chapters.The first chapter focuses on the presentation and meaning of Rawls' s stability,Rawls' s criticism of Plato and Hobbes' s treatment of stability problems,in order to make a preliminary understanding of Rawls' s stability in contrast,and finally analyze the importance of stability problems.In the second chapter,mainly the development of Rawls' s understanding and demonstration of stability in the process of dealing with stability is generally discussed.In A Theory of Justice,Rawls has two main arguments on stability.The first one is based on the principles of moral psychology.Justice as fairness can make people form a strong sense of justice,thus voluntarily abide by the principle of justice.The second is the argumentation of the congruence of justice and good.Rawls argues that the highest level of human goodness is justice,so abiding by the principle of justice is the pursuit of good.In the later period of Rawls' s theory,because he realized that the argument in A Theory of Justice did not deal with stability well enough,Rawls made a famous theoretical turn from a comprehensive moral theory to political liberalism.In the book Political Liberalism,Rawls puts forward the overlapping consensus theory.Rawls believes that justice as fairness can be accepted unanimously by people who hold different comprehensive doctrines when it is only regarded as a value-neutral political principle.Chapter three mainly combs Rawls' s understanding of legitimacy,responds to the misunderstanding of stability in academic circles,and finally clarifies the essence of Rawls' stability mainly according to his "final point of view" in Justice as Fairness.The book Justice as Fairness is Rawls' s work which summarizes and perfects his own theory of justice in his later years.In this book,Rawls clearly points out that the proof of the principle of justice can be divided into two stages.In the first stage,people in the original position choose the principle of justice,and in the second stage after leaving the original position,Rawls basically demonstrates that after people know their personal tendency and what comprehensive theories they hold,they can still overcome the tendency of injustice,accept the principle of justice chosen in the first stage of demonstration,and prove the stability of the principle of justice.Rawls believes that only when these two stages are proved successfully can the proof of the principle of justice be completed.The reason why stability can be regarded as a necessary condition to justify the principle of justice lies,first of all,in Rawls' s view that stability is not social or institutional stability,but the moral stability of the concept of justice.Only the view of justice that can produce self-support,that is to say,that can make people have a strong sense of justice to abide by this view of justice and override other motives that violate the view of justice,can this view of justice be stable.Rawls believed that only the concept of justice that could satisfy this stability requirement could be proved.The reason why Rawls attaches so much importance to the stability of the concept of justice and regards the stability of the concept of justice as a necessary condition for the justification of the concept of justice is inseparable from Rawls' s understanding of legitimacy.Generally speaking,"legitimacy" means that a political order is recognized as fair and reasonable and has a reasonable moral basis.In other words,under what conditions can people morally accept other people's domination over them? Why do people give up some of their power over anarchy and accept the government's compulsion to themselves? But Rawls did not intend to justify the existence of the state.His premise is that we already live in a constitutional country and affirm the necessity of its existence.What Rawls really cares about is what kind of moral conditions should be satisfied by the concept of justice are being used to regulate the basic structure of society,and whether the political order based on this concept of justice is justified.It is precisely based on the unique understanding of legitimacy that makes moral stability a necessary condition for the justification of the concept of justice.