Ethics

Ethics Study Guide One example of this is evident in de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex, where she writes of the occurrence of life slipping by in an infantile world. This fading of life is due to individuals having been kept in a state of ignorance and servitude, which they don’t have the capacity to overcome. Similar to a child, these individuals can only exercise the freedom that is constrained by the universe around them—one that was set up by others before them. We see this example illustrated by slaves who have not obtained the consciousness of their slavery and simply live life as tough there were no alternative. The second category of bad faith conduct establishes a pursuit of sincerity that is actually insincere in its nature. Sincerity is defined as the determination to be for oneself and for others what one actually is. De Beauvoir believed that if a person never becomes the essential, it is because he/she has failed to bring about this change. Therefore, insincerity is denying one’s self and it establishes a foundational excuse for the continuation of living in bad faith. Finally, bad faith includes as inauthentic attitude toward faith itself. The individual living with bad faith makes no distinction between beliefs. It is just as acceptable to believe the irrational as the rational for this person. With bad faith, the individual moves from the position that all beliefs are equally certain to the perspective that an individual belief is absolutely concrete. 6.3 John Rawls John Rawls was a 20th century philosopher who attempted to associate Kantian philosophy with the law. Unlike Kant, he was concerned with the issue of fairness and social justice. He developed a social contract theory of justice. To review, social contract describes a broad class of theories that try to explain the ways in which people form states and/or maintain social order. Rawls develops the idea that justice is fairness in his classic book, A Theory of Justice (1971). In this text, Rawls says the rational individual would only choose to establish a society that would at least conform to the following two rules: 1. The Liberty Princip e: Each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive basic liberty compatible with a similar liberty for others. This rule requires basic and universal respect for persons as a minimum standard for all just institutions. In reality, there are significant differences between individuals that, under conditions of liberty, will lead to social and economic inequalities, despite moral equality. 2. The Difference Principle: Social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that (a) they are to be of the greatest benefit of the least-advantaged members of society, consistent with the just savings principle (the difference principle); and (b) offices and positions must be open to everyone under conditions of fair equality of opportunity. This rule suggests that it will be to the advantage to all (similar to the utility principle). The idea of fair equality of opportunity means not only that offices and positions are distributed on the basis of ©2018 Achieve Page 46 of 116