A Reinterpretation Of "the Kantian Interpretation Of Justice As Fairness"

In Section 40“The Kantian Interpretation of Justice asFairness”in A Theory of Justice, as a metaphysical point ofview, John Rawls explains his theory of justice by discussingthe relationship between his principle of justice and the moralphilosophy of Immanuel Kant. Following the clue indicated byJohn Rawls, by reinterpreting the relationship between Kant’sphilosophy and Rawls’more deeply based on Kant’s works,especially The Groundwork of Metaphysics of Morals and TheCritique of Practical Reason, and discussing the differencesof Kant’s philosophy of morals between autonomy and heteronomy,categorical imperative and hypothetical imperative, I willfinally argue that in Rawls’principle of justice, there isan innate relationship not only between Kant’s theory of“autonomy”and Rawls’theory of“original position”, whichincludes“veil of ignorance”,“the motivational assumptionof mutual disinterest”and“the noumenal self”, but alsobetween Kant’s“categorical imperative”and Rawls’“primarygoods”.At the end of Section 40, Rawls proposes two differences between his philosophy and Kant’s. First, the topic discussedby Rawls is“We”, not“I”; Second, the theory of“primarygoods”is requisite for circumstances of justice. Thereasonable point in his analyses is that to discuss the problemof social justice, it is necessary to give some complement toKant’s philosophy of morals in some details even though thismay take risks to betray Kant. However, the second differencein which Rawls cites the theory of“primary goods”in orderto indicate the reality and generality may arouse somecontroversies: is the generality really universal as Rawlsargued, and is the“primary goods”in Rawls’list really“primary”? Nagel’s critics on these questions show thatthese flaws in Rawls’theory may lead his Kantianinterpretation to collapse: if the theory of“primary goods”loses its reasonability, it is impossible to construct such aKantian interpretation. As the belief in metaphysics amongpeople is reduced continually, to build a theory of justicewithout elements of metaphysics may lead to a better situation.