On Rawls’ Reflection On Perfectionism

In this paper,Rawls is defined as a perfectionist in a weak sense.By combing the texts of Rawls’ A Theory of Justice and Political Liberalism,this paper analyzes Rawls’ criticism and reflection on the perfectionism of ancient Greece and classical utilitarianism,and expounds the practical significance of Rawls’ theory of justice in the context of pluralism.Rawls’ reflection on the theory of traditional perfection is based on the tradition of contract theory and Kant’s tradition of obligation theory.Rawls inherited the tradition of contract theory,raised the contract theory to a more abstract level through the establishment of the original state,and put forward a unique justice theory as fairness.Rawls inherited Kant’s theory of obligation and the tradition of constructivism,divided the principles of justice applied to individuals into "duty" and "natural obligation",and discussed the specific application of the two in the practice of political system in detail.The contents of Rawls’reflection on the traditional perfectionism mainly include:first,through the inheritance of contract theory and obligation theory,Rawls abandoned the "ultimate concern" and "the highest good" that the ancient Greek perfectionism paid attention to,and put "legitimacy"before "perfection";second,through the establishment of "original state",Rawls took the principles of utilitarianism and intuitionism from human beings;third,Rawls endorses liberalism neutrality by demonstrating the relationship and order between "right" and "good";fourth,Rawls distinguishes four kinds of neutrality concepts from the principle of narrow sense neutrality,and takes the concept of proof neutrality as the core of his justice theory;fifth,Rawls,as a moderate perfectionist,from the perspective of pluralism starting from the reality of justice,from the theory of justice to political liberalism,the theory of justice has been transformed from a kind of completeness theory to a kind of justice theory under the background of pluralism.At the same time,it still insists that there are still some universal values applicable to all rational individuals under the background of pluralism.The consideration of Rawls’ moderate perfectionism is helpful for individuals to better adapt to the reality of pluralism.