The Study On Political Ethics Of Rawls' Theory In The Law Of Peoples

Both the eight principles of international justice constructed in The Law of Peoples and the two principles of domestic justice raised in A Theory of Justice constitute the comprehensive system of the theory of Justice.On the other side,the rational and legitimacy of these two domestic principles of justice and the relevant argument of effectiveness and stability based on valid reason have been finally completed by the modification of Political Liberalism.The concrete method of modification is to replace the original concept of the rational by the reasonable,and to hold the reasonable as the substantive characteristics of morality of its normative subject.Meanwhile,it marks the transition from "classical liberalism" to "political liberalism" of the thought of liberalism of Rawls.The thought of liberalism inherited and extended in The Law of Peoples is just Rawls's thought of political liberalism.From this point,the theory source of The Law of Peoples is rightly inheriting from Political Liberalism rather than A Theory of Justice.This is a theatrical basis and precondition to correctly understand The Law of Peoples.To interpret The Law of Peoples begins from the fundamental examination of the word of "peoples".There are two concrete questions:the basic characteristic of"peoples",and its correct Chinese translation.As the acting subject and normative object constructed by Rawls in the international areas,"peoples" not only has the nationality of "nation" which is considered as the common cultural community,but also has power characteristic of a country which is considered as political entity.Meanwhile,it is strictly separated from the above two.Based on the research of the fundamental characteristics of "people",I think the current Chinese translation of"people(s)",both the widely popular translation of "??",and the acceptable translation of "??","??" or "??" are not the ideal translation in the contemporary Chinese context.Based on the understanding of fundamental characteristics and the research of the relevant phrases in the contemporary Chinese contert,I suggest to translate "people(s)"as "(?)??".The exploration of the political and ethical thought in The Law of Peoples cannot do without the relevant investigation and discussion of the moral confirmation of the legitimacy in The Law of Peoples.There are three applications of original positions in The Law of The Peoples.These three original positions are "first original position"and "second original position" which both have something to do with liberal peoples and "the secondary original position" which has something to do with decent peoples.First original position is the domestic original appearance in the Constitutional Democracy Society,which has already been discussed and modified in A Theory of Justice and Political Liberalism.Second original position when applied contrary to the first original appearance,Rawls replaces the agent in the original position from the individual(citizen)to the entirety(people).If we analyzed from Rawls's real intention,to consider first original position as the basis of second original position will ensure the internal constituency of the basic benefit of the individual in first original position and the basic benefit of peoples in second original position,this replacement is actually reasonable.The examination and explanation of the secondary original position,we need to hold the correct understanding and seize of moral characteristics of decency as the precondition The major method of argument is same as the one of second original position Another question relative to the secondary original position is the principle of tolerance of the society of peoples.Given the question of tolerance,there are two perspectives:one is whether decent peoples could be tolerated;the other is whether liberal peoples are able to survive.The first question is fully demonstrated in the The Law of Peoples,and the second question is partly demonstrated in the moral characteristics of constitutional democracy societies in Political Liberalism.Another core concept on the political ethic thought in The Law of Peoples is human rights.Human rights in The Law of Peoples are defined as some particular sort of human rights by Rawls.For this particular sort,I will explain as follows:first,the human rights in The Law of Peoples is the one to classify different sorts or judgment criteria;second,if these criteria need to be generally acknowledged,then the human rights will be inevitably understood as a kind of universal right;third,the popularity included in the human rights need to concrete rather than formal,that is concrete rights need to be established to be defined as the criteria of measurement and judgment;fourth,the legitimacy of these kinds of human rights with realistic universal significance need to base on the reasonable consensus reached between the principle of public rational and mutual benefit rather than any kind of moral legitimacy verification and its wide extension.The examination based on the inner constraint of human rights to war rights and obligations of legal aid.The Law of Peoples actually admits the sense of justice of two kinds of wars:wars of self-defense and wars of human rights.Wars of self-defense are fully demonstrated in the The Law of The Peoples,and the wars of human rights are partly mentioned in some footnotes.The legitimacy of wars of self-defense and wars of human rights actually could be explained as outlaw states aggravate the human rights of other countries or badly aggravate the human rights of its own people.The discussion of Rawls's discussion of war rights is relatively clear,but there is still some kind of trace of western discourse hegemony which is deeply rooted.However,the first and foremost point need to be erected on obligation of legal aid is that the obligation of legal aid erected is an international moral obligation rather than a kind of philanthropy because of sympathy.Another concern on obligation of legal aid is to pay attention to the essential distinction and the reason between the princple of distribution justice and itself.Through this fundamental examination and discussion,we will find the international justice theory of Rawls actually lack s kind of possibility of international distribution principle.In the end,for the examination of moral commitment,ultimate goal and moral concern of The Law of Peoples,this paper will place it in the discussion with the comparative research of cosmopolitanism.This is lateral extension of examination in The Law of Peoples,Through this discussion,we will find that the relationship between cosmopolitanism and the international justice theory of political liberalism are not that poignant and opposite.Both of them have a moral commitment to the universal realization of human rights,rather they respectively have different understanding of the basic structure of the world,and then have the divergence of designation and plan.From the designation of The law of peoples,this moral commitment has already been realized with the aid of the first original position in domestic society;however,cosmopolitanism will design the ethical field of human rights as the world level.The clarification of this widespread misunderstanding is the accurate judgment based on knowing and understanding the political ethical thought of The law of peoples.