Review On Yao Yang’s Thought Of Social Justice

Since reform and opening, China has made remarkable economic achievements,and at the same time, Chinese society has highlighted social injustice such ascorruption, the gap between rich and poor. The issue breeds non-rational behavior ofthe people living at the bottom society and intelligentsia.It is a serious threat to socialstability. In this background, academic circles try to solve social injustice byutilitarianism and egalitarianism. However, history and reality have proven thatutilitarianism and egalitarianism are difficult to solve the problem. Under theguidance of utilitarian theory, economy has developed rapidly, but exacerbated thegap between rich and poor, egalitarianism with moral appeal has brought a greatdisaster for people. Therefore, the contemporary Chinese society needs a rationalscholar to provide theoretical thinking and guidance on social justice for thepublic.Yang Yao is one of the most influential representatives, who study socialjustice. Yao Yang explains the meaning of justice according to the characteristics ofthe times, when China’s rapid economic development and the current gap betweenrich and poor co-exist. He creatively considers equality of rights and relative equalityof results as a standard of measuring social justice, disinterested government andcapacity development as a way of realizing social justice. Yao Yang’s thought ofsocial justice is representative. It represents rationality, times, inclusiveness, middle-left which the contemporary Chinese society needs. The purpose of this thesis is tointroduce his thought of social justice systematically on the basis of reading widelyYao Yang’s originals, make a comment tentatively, and provide references for solvingcontemporary problems of social injustice in China and building a socialistharmonious society.This thesis consists of four parts: ideological origins,contents, characteristics,value and limitations of Yao Yang’s thought of social justice.The first part is mainly about ideological origins of Yao Yang’s thought of socialjustice. It roots mainly into John Rawls’ two principles of justice, Amartya Sen’stheory of capability development, Man Seer Olson’s group theory and DanielBromley’s idea of efficiency and equality and his idea of state and market. Yao Yangregards Rawls’ difference principle, the principle of freedom and equality, and orderin accordance with a dictionary as an important basis of the principle of socialdistributive justice; Amartya Sen’s capability development and Olson’s sub-grouptheory is the theoretical basis of Yang Yao exploring ways to solve the problem of social injustice At the same time, Bromley’s idea influences Yang Yao deeply, andmakes his idea middle-left.The second part introduces the main contents of Yao Yang’s thought of socialjustice. This part discusses five aspects in detail: the definition of Yao Yang’s socialjustice, equal distribution of basic rights and items related to individual ability,utilitarianism distribution about other items and government’s consideration for theharmonious society.The third part tries to sum up the characteristics of Yao Yang’s thought of socialjustice, on the basis of grasping its contents. The fourth part makes a personalcomment on Yao Yang’s thought of social justice, and discusses its value andlimitation.