Theories of Justice

Rawls takes a practical and rational, rather than idealistic or utopian, approach to the problem. Importantly, Rawls includes the factor of "minimal morality" and argues that this morality in achieving social justice can only be successfully applied to any problem, including funding higher education, if we apply the "ignorance principle." This principles says that

the contract makers are to act as if they did not know their place in society. Such ignorance guarantees impartiality and prevents us from arguing on selfish rather than general grounds. This veil of ignorance would exclude knowledge of one's class position or social status, one's fortune in the distribution of natural assets and abilities, one's intelligence (89-90).

Rawls correctly assumes that every individual, without such a veil of ignorance, would only agree to a contract which addresses that individual's own self-interest, without much if any concern for the general social morality or justice involved. What the veil of ignorance creates is a situation in which every individual, fearing that he or she would be among the "least well-off" (90), would only agree to a contract in which the least well-off were affo

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ieves that the poor should not be punished for factors beyond their control, while Nozick believes simply that "nearly everyone is entitled to everything he acquires so long as coercion or fraud is not involved" (99). To Nozick the poor would not be entitled to public educational funding drawn from the rich unless they could somehow prove they were worse off than they would have been in a society without individual property rights. Of course, such proof would be impossible to provide. To Nozick, the poor have no right to a public education they cannot individually afford. Rawls' theory is just and moral because, as Bowie and Simon point out, it appeals to our "intuitive sentiments about public justice" (92), which certainly include the belief that people should not be denied educational funding, or any public assistance, on the basis of factors which are entirely beyond their control. The problem with Rawls' theory, of course, is that it would be difficult if not impossible to erect such a veil of ignorance and to have people, rich or poor, create a contract for funding higher education based on such purely moral considerations. This study will evaluate and compare arguments for and against programs of affirmative action and pr
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Approximate Word count = 2015
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)

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