Conference paper

WHY RAWLS IS NOT A KANTIAN?

Davor Rodin ; Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia

Abstract

The author’s starting point is the argument that Rawls cannot be a Kantian, because he – unlike Kant – was faced with the pluralism of the contemporary innovative society, in which individuals are not divided into the existential winners and losers solely on the basis of different traditions but also of different innovations. Rawls thinks that this fact of pluralism may only be a posteriori politically regulated in a way that it is permanently cultivated to the level of political, moral and legal order, acceptable for citizens, which gives legitimacy to the inequalities among them. Individuals are thus linked into a political community by means of justice understood as fairness. In this type of justice, citizens allow for the inequalities because they live in uncertainty or vagueness, which the author considers to be conditio humana in the innovative society. Under such circumstances, the author concludes, fairness is an ability to cope with an unfamiliar injustice.

Keywords

innovative society; Kant; pluralism; justice; fairness; John Rawls

Hrčak ID:

23198

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/23198

Publication date:

26.8.2003.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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