‘Perhaps the most important primary good’: self-respect and Rawls’s principles of justice

Nir Eyal
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Nir Eyal: Princeton University, USA, neyal@princeton.edu

Politics, Philosophy & Economics, 2005, vol. 4, issue 2, 195-219

Abstract: The article begins by reconstructing the just distribution of the social bases of self-respect, a principle of justice that is covert in Rawls’s writing. I argue that, for Rawls, justice mandates that each social basis for self-respect be equalized (and, as a second priority, maximized). Curiously, for Rawls, that principle ranks higher than Rawls’s two more famous principles of justice - equal liberty and the difference principle. I then recall Rawls’s well-known confusion between self-respect and another form of self-appraisal, namely, confidence in one’s determinate plans and capacities. Correcting that confusion forces Rawls to accept objectionable and illiberal politics. Surprisingly, a consistent Rawls must endorse absolute economic equality, deny liberty any priority whatsoever, or sponsor still other illiberal political views - evidence of a flaw in the ethical basis of Rawls’s politics.

Keywords: self-respect; self-esteem; distributive justice; Rawls; maximin; primary goods; liberty; equality; lexicographical order (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:pophec:v:4:y:2005:i:2:p:195-219

DOI: 10.1177/1470594X05052538

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