Rolls-exploration And Feasibility Studies, Proper And Good Relations

The question of the relationship between right and good is a thoroughly principle line in western political philosophy since the modern times, surrounded with which concept should be prior to another, generally, the political philosophy from the modern times has developed two different but mutually influenced accesses. On this issue, Rawls hold the standpoint that the concept "right" is prior to the concept "good". But in his whole discussion about the relationship between right and good, the priority of the principle of right is just one aspect; besides, the integration of the concept "good" is also a premise which can't be ignored for the definitude of the principle "right". So, this question of relationship can show us some kind of coherence in the other aspect. But recently, the discussion to the relationship of right and good hasn't gained its deserved recognition in the academic circle. So, in some degree, this actuality brought to the study of the relationship between right and good some trend of simplification. In our opinion, to the contrary, the relationship between right and good is undoubtedly not only a subsidiary to Rawls'whole theory of justice, but its important part, which makes the question of the relationship between right and good to be a complicated issue, and its existence also has a profound impact to Rawls's whole thought.Meanwhile, the complexity of the relationship question brought about two different modes of stability of the priority of right. In this paper, we reckon that the mode of stability has two different forms------the stability mode of morality and the stability mode of society. These two forms not only mixed together in Rawls'earlier and later thoughts, also, they provided a special angle of view which is facilitate for us to master the transformation of Rawls's thought profoundly and comprehensively. This paper aims to start with such two forms of stability, and tries to open out the relationship between these two forms of stability and the inevitability and rationality of the transformation of Rawls'thought.This paper was divided into three chapters. The first one mainly discusses the inner meaning of the concept "right" and the concept "good", besides, the development headway of their relationship is also under discussion. So, the main aim of this chapter is to open out the general theoretical visage and point out the theoretical question which is to be solved by Rawls. The main theme of chapter two is Rawls's solving method on this question in his earlier thought. This chapter can be divided into three parts. Firstly, this chapter tries to open out the contractual premise of the principle of priority of right; then, the details of how the concept "right" is prior to the concept "good" is to be discussed; at last, we will expound the question of the stability of the principle of the priority and point out that the stability principle which was mentioned in a theory of justice is a kind of moral stability. The main content in chapter three is Rawls'basic attitude in his later thoughts and some theoretical amendments comparing with his earlier thought. This chapter is also divided into three parts. Firstly, this chapter expounds the theoretical headways from Well-ordered society to pluralist democracy society; then, in the premise of such headway, the pair of category-----right and good would be redefined and their relationship would be re-annotated; in the last, we will point out that the stability pattern in political liberalism can be belonged to the kind of social stability, in this base, we can distinguish it from moral stability, and, we can take it as a premise to argue the rationality of the principle of the priority of right in the language environment of political liberalism. In the last part of this paper, it is a brief comment on the basic conclusion of the principle of the priority of right and Rawls' theoretical transformation.