Lectures on John Rawls's Theory of Justice by Mostafa Zali

John Rawls (1920–2002) can be considered one of the most important and influential contemporary political philosophers. His main effort is focused on deriving principles of justice for the main social institutions (the basic structure of society). To this end, he proposes a framework based on the classical theory of the social contract, according to which the principles of justice are the result of an impartial agreement among free and equal persons in an equal and fair position (the original position); the principles of justice arising from this fair position (the first principle (equality in basic rights and liberties), the second principle (composed of the two principles of fair equality of opportunity and the difference principle)) are known as justice as fairness.

In his book A Theory of Justice, in three parts, Rawls advances the explanation of the essential elements of his theory: in the first part, after an introductory explanation of his specific method within the framework of the principles of justice and its distinction from existing alternatives (utilitarianism and intuitionism), he describes the principles of justice and then addresses the method of deriving these principles and demonstrating their superiority over existing alternatives. The second part of the theory is devoted to the institutions resulting from justice as fairness; in this part, Rawls explains that among existing political systems, two systems—liberal socialism and property-owning democracy—are compatible with the requirements of the two principles of justice. The third part of A Theory of Justice is devoted to proving the stability of a well-ordered society (a society arising from justice as fairness). In this part, Rawls demonstrates, first, that justice as fairness is compatible with human moral psychology, and second, that the principles of justice as fairness are an intrinsic part of the human good (the famous argument known as the congruence argument). However, in a famous turn to political liberalism, Rawls attempts to resolve some contradictions in the theory of justice and specifically replaces the congruence argument with overlapping consensus. The aim of the lectures on John Rawls's Theory of Justice, taught by Dr. Mostafa Zali, is a direct engagement with the main elements of John Rawls's theory of justice through a reading of his concise book, Justice as Fairness: A Restatement. This book is the result of editing Rawls's lecture notes for teaching the theory of justice at Harvard University and can be considered a concise statement of the core issues of the two books A Theory of Justice and Political Liberalism. In the course of reading this book and alongside the exposition and elaboration of the main elements of his thought, some other fundamental concepts such as the idea of public reason are mentioned, and a number of criticisms leveled against his theory and the disputes formed around it, such as ideal theory versus non-ideal theory, the necessity or non-necessity of a realist justification of norms, and the legitimate limits of state intervention in the economy, are briefly discussed.

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Session One

Session Two

Session Three

Session Four

Session Five

Session Six

Session Seven

Session Eight

Session Nine

Session Ten

Session Eleven

Session Twelve

Session Thirteen

Session Fourteen

Session Fifteen

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Lectures on John Rawls's Theory of Justice

Instructor: Mostafa Zali

Fall 2019

University of Tehran

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