So people willingly consent to transfer their autonomy to the control of a sovereign so their very lives and property will be secured. This idea parallels that of Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679), who interpreted human nature to be selfish and brutish to the degree that, absent the strong hand of a ruler, chaos would result. Social contract theory held that the natural state of human beings was freedom, but that human beings will rationally submit to some restrictions on their freedom to secure their mutual safety and benefit, not subjugation to a monarch, no matter how benign or well intentioned.

Rawls developed a theory of justice based on the Enlightenment ideas of thinkers like John Locke (1632–1704) and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778), who advocated social contract theory. In his justice theory, offered as an alternative to the dominant utilitarianism of the times, the idea of fairness applied beyond the individual to include the community as well as analysis of social injustice with remedies to correct it. Justice, for Rawls, had to do with fairness-in fact, he frequently used the expression justice as fairness-and his concept of fairness was a political one that relied on the state to take care of the most disadvantaged. He sought not to maximize wealth, which was a utilitarian goal, but to establish justice as the criterion by which goods and services were distributed among the populace. John Rawls (1921–2002) wanted to change the debate that had prevailed throughout the 1960s and 1970s in the West about how to maximize wealth for everyone. It ends with an American political philosopher for whom the equal distribution of resources was a primary concern. This chapter began with an image of Justice holding aloft scales as a symbol of equilibrium and fairness.

Apply justice theory in a business context.

Evaluate John Rawls’s answer to utilitarianism.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

A theory of justice by john rawls