An article review session took place on July 5, 2017, at the Meeting Room of BRAC University Savar Campus. Ms. Taskina Tabassum, faculty member of Ethics & Culture, reviewed an article titled “Rawls’ Theory of Justice” by Vinit Haksar.
The author of the article discusses John Rawls’ idea of justice from a critical point of view. According to Rawls, justice and morality should not be overridden by each other; however, in some cases a certain practice in the society may have a conflict with morality while establishing justice for people or it could be the other way around. When such kind of conflict takes place there could be four types of possibilities mentioned by Rawls: a practice that is really just but on the whole immoral; a practice that is just and moral; a practice that is unjust and immoral; and a practice that is really unjust but on the whole morally desirable. Rawls also mentions that in this scenario the people in the society should decide which should be prioritized: justice or morality.
In the review session, Ms. Tabassum addressed how the author of the article found some absurdness in Rawls’ theory, for example, from the position of equal liberty an unjust morally desirable practice can be considered just according to his theory. Ms. Tabassum further elaborated how the author does not reject Rawls’ idea of justice, but suggests modification in the theory to make it less objectionable.
At the end of Ms. Tabassum’s discussion, all teachers of Ethics and Culture course shared their opinion on the topic. It was concluded that the article was relevant to the course and it will help to clarify John Rawls’ philosophy of justice from a critical point of view.