Rawls' Criticism And Transcendence On Utilitarianism

Rawls is a well-known American contemporary philosopher and ethicist, his theory of justice creates the wonderful history of western ethics. Since"A Theory of Justice"published, it has been high attention and ongoing discussion by lots of scholars from various countries, which is known as "after World War II, ethics, political philosophy of the most important theoretical works." His theory of justice is based on the critique of utilitarianism, and then gradually improved. Eventually it replaced the dominance of utilitarianism on the western academic theory.Rawls thinks that there are three main defective aspects in utilitarian theory, which is also the critical core of Rawls. First, Utilitarianism ignores the social equity. The essence of the problem is that Utilitarianism only considers how to make the cake bigger rather than how to allocate the cake fairly. In this case, it may lead to social inequities and other issues, which is the core to reject of theory of justice; Second, utilitarianism regards"right"as the proper tools to increase"good", which will put"good"in the proper position. Rawls thinks that there are some significant problems in dealing with the relationship between good and right. Because if the good is priority, it is meaning that good is the dominant, right or not is determined by the good. However, due to different positions, scholars have different views on the good, not a way we all agree to the highest good as the standards of conduct. In this way, good is uncertainty; Third, the Utilitarianism make the individual choice extend to the community. It believes that when individuals are making choices, they will abandon the smaller interests to get the best interests. Since society is a collection of individuals, it will also sacrifice the interests of the members of a community to promote the greatest interests. Rawls thinks that utilitarianism ignores the differences between the personal choice and social choice. In the process of critical, Rawls achieves to beyond Utilitarianism. Rawls demonstrates the rationality of his theory in his theory.This theory covers Original position, equality and freedom, two principles of justice,and also has the veil of ignorance, reflective equilibrium and maximin rule to support. Eventually he builds a perfect theory building.Although many scholars believe that the criticism of Rawls is not completely, because he deeply influenced by Utilitarianism, There is no doubt that the theory of justice has a huge impact in the history of Western ethics. Furthermore , it has a positive meaning to build a harmonious society in China on many aspects, for instance: how to coordinate the relationship between freedom and equality;how to coordinate the collective interests and individual interests and how to do the work of ideological and political education.