FAIRNESS IS THE FOUNDATION OF JUSTICE

In his work a theory of justice john rawls starts with the idea of a group of people who come together to decide the principles upon which their political association should operate. in other words, they set about forming a social contract. he adds one further important thing as well that they should forget everything about themselves as individuals. they do not know if they are poor or wealthy, men or women. they do not know their race or their position within society. they come together simply as individuals nothing more. they are concerned to benefit themselves but do not know who they are. rawls, by this means, hopes to achieve justice, for each person will want to legislate for the benefit of themselves, whoever they eventually turn out to be. rawls argues that such a group would require two principles: liberty and distribution of resources. as rawls put it, this is justice based on fairness. thus, this paper is interested in initiating a general discussion on “justice as fairness”.