Rawls's Theory Of The Priority Of Basic Liberties: Principle And Justification

John Rawls, one of the most important philosophers in the American and even western intellectual sphere in the 20th century, devoted all his life to the construction of his theory of'justice as fairness', which provides the most systemic, reasonable and feasible justification to solve the justice problem under the pluralistic reality until now. His theory of the priority of basic liberties plays an extremely significant role in his legal philosophy and political philosophy. As the premise and foundation of the development of law, liberty is a crucial factor of promoting the development of law, and the pursuance of liberty is one of the most important values of law. This whole thesis is based on the inquiry into Rawls's view of the basic liberties, attempting to explore the justification of the priority of liberty, and to reveal the fundamental appeals and the social and ethical care of Rawls's theory of the priority of basic liberties, thereby clarifying the inner approach of Rawls's liberalism political and legal thoughts.The first principle of justice summarizes Rawls's conception of liberty. For Rawls, the liberty of citizens maintains a close inner connection with the basic structure of society and constitutional circumstances. In the sense of social justice, Rawls contended that each person has equal basic liberties. These basic liberties are not abstract liberty, but specific liberties which are given by a list. Besides, in order to achieve'equal'liberty, Rawls distinguished liberty from the'worth of liberty', so as to reconcile the contradictions between the inequality of material wealth and the realization of equal liberty. Meanwhile, he divided liberty into'basic liberties'and 'nonbasic liberties', so as to give the basic liberties certain special protections. To give priority to the basic liberties is the strength of Rawls's liberal theory, which reflects the importance he attaches to liberty as a liberalism and constitutes criticisms to the utilitarianism tradition. The priority of liberty is embodied in the first priority rule, which means the precedence of the principle of equal liberty over the second principle of justice.For Rawls, putting forward the priority of basic liberties is far from perfect. He must provide convincing justification. Once he was unable to justify the priority, his criticism to utilitarianism would be weakened severely. Rawls initially justified the priority based on psychology and economics, which drawn harsh criticism. So he modified his argument several times, and finally he resorted to the idea of social cooperation and the conception of moral person, which viewed basic liberties as necessary social condition of the formation and development of moral personality, and then he took the highest-order interest as the base of the priority of liberty. Meanwhile, he took the idea of'overlapping consensus'into the formation of the conception of justice, in order to enhance the stability of his theory of justice with the fact of reasonable pluralism.Rawls's turn of justification strategy of the priority of basic liberties is his contemplation and response to the changing social reality, not only in order to answer the criticisms. The contemplation reflects in two aspects:one is the pursuance of the stability confronting with the fact of the reasonable pluralism; the other is his social and ethical care for the living values and life quality of citizens in the society ruled by law. Rawls's theory of basic liberties inherited the western liberalism tradition, and was deeply influenced by several academic traditions, especially the social contract tradition represented by Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Kant, and utilitarianism represented by Hume, Sidgwick, and Mill. His theory succeeds to and surpasses his predecessors', but it still has its limitations. The inquiry to Rawls's theory of the priority of basic liberties is of considerable importance to the construction of legal theory and legal practice of China, and also provides a new perspective to the understanding and reflection of liberalism.