Rational Choice and the Original Position: The (Many) Models of Rawls and Harsanyi

Authors

Gerald Gaus, University of Arizona
John Thrasher, Chapman UniversityFollow

Files

Description

"Rawls proclaims that 'the theory of justice is part, perhaps the nwst significant part, of the theory of rational choice' (T]R, p. 15, emphasis added; see section 2.2.3 below). Many have refused to take this claim literally (or even seriously), by, for example, interpreting the original position analysis as a heuristic for identifying independently true moral principles (see Dworkin, "Original Position," p. 19 and Barry, Theories, pp. 271-82). In this chapter we take this fundamental claim of Rawls at face value. We thus shall defend:

The Fundamental Derivation Thesis: the justification of a principle of justice J derives from the conclusion that, under conditions C, J is the rational choice of chooser(s) P."

ISBN

9781107375321

Publication Date

12-2015

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Disciplines

Ethics and Political Philosophy | Other Philosophy

Comments

In Timothy Hinton (Ed.), The Original Position. Dr. Thrasher's chapter begins on page 39.

Recommended Citation

Gaus, Gerald, and John Thrasher. “Rational Choice and the Original Position: The (Many) Models of Rawls and Harsanyi.” The Original Position. Edited by Timothy Hinton, Cambridge University Press, 2015, pp. 39-58.

Copyright

Cambridge University Press