Philippine Democracy Online

by Eugim Migue ADDU Graduate Student                              The second part of the principle of justice according to John Rawls is concerned with the distribution of income and wealth and the design of public institutions. It deals with the task of opening offices and opportunities to all social ranks and classes; though not necessarily actually giving persons all opportunities, but giving them expectations and prospects for a more advantageous and fortunate circumstance through the design of the social structure. The second principle, further, allows, and does not restrict, inequalities to happen but on the condition that “everyone benefits” to such a designed inequality.

by Eugim Migue ADDU Graduate Student                                         Robert Nozick acknowledges the superficiality of Kant’s dictum, at least in political philosophy. For him Kant’s strict dictum, “to treat a person not simply as a means,” is quite problematic: it simply is not possible; if we religiously practice it, a gross limitation, if not the total end, to all economic and social transactions is achieved. What Nozick thinks appropriate for political philosophy as its subject, and for any state as its ultimate purpose, is to specify the ways in which using a person is permissible. But here Nozick was quick to point out that there are certain demands which are unquestionably impermissible for a state to ask of its citizens, e.g., getting some citizens to aid others, asking the rich to share his wealth, to be a “sacrificial lamb” to achieve a greater purpose, and so on. The ...