74 pages 2 hours read

John Rawls

A Theory of Justice

Nonfiction | Reference/Text Book | Adult | Published in 1971

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Chapter 9, Sections 78-87

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 9, Section 78 Summary: “Autonomy and Objectivity”

Rawls writes that:

 

[A] well-ordered society affirms the autonomy of persons and encourages the objectivity of their considered judgments of justice. Any doubts that its members may entertain about the soundness of their moral sentiments when they reflect upon how these dispositions were acquired may be dispelled by seeing that their convictions match the principles which would be chosen in the original position or, if they do not, by revising their judgments so that they do (456).

 

Rawls states that “the moral conception adopted is independent of natural contingencies and accidental social circumstances” (451). Therefore, moral sense conforms to fair principles, and when acting from such principles, persons act autonomously: “[T]hey are acting from principles that they would acknowledge under conditions that best express their nature as free and equal rational beings” (452). The principles of moral psychology are agencies persons utilize to reach a complete understanding, but a person’s conception of right is ultimately set independently for themselves.

 

Under the contract view and in the original position, autonomy and objectivity are compatible. Justice-as-fairness does not dictate that the conscientious judgments of a person always be respected or that persons may form whatever moral convictions they desire. Actions based on conscious directives may violate the principles: “[A] person’s conscience is misguided when he seeks to impose on us conditions that violate the principles to which we would each consent in [the original] situation” (455).