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Intro to Philosophy Unit 9: Political Philosophy and Justice

Political philosophy asks what makes government legitimate, how far liberty extends and what a just distribution of goods looks like. This unit covers social contract theory, Mill on liberty and the modern debate over justice.

Covers: Hobbes and the state of nature, Locke: natural rights, property and revolution, Rousseau and the general will, Mill and the harm principle, Rawls's justice as fairness, Nozick, libertarianism and Marx, Civil disobedience and communitarian critiques

Study guide

Social contract theorists ask why we should obey the state by imagining life without one. Thomas Hobbes argued that in the state of nature people are roughly equal and compete for scarce goods, so life becomes a war of all against all, 'solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.' Rational fear of death leads people to covenant to give up their rights to an absolute sovereign who keeps peace. John Locke described a more orderly state of nature governed by natural law, where people have rights to life, liberty and property. Property arises when people mix their labor with unowned things, leaving enough and as good for others. Government exists by consent to protect rights and may be resisted when it violates them.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau worried that society had corrupted natural human goodness, creating inequality and dependence. In The Social Contract he argued that legitimate authority comes from the general will, the will of citizens aimed at the common good, which differs from the 'will of all,' a mere sum of private interests. Obeying laws we give ourselves as a community makes us free. John Stuart Mill turned to the limits of authority in On Liberty: the only purpose for which power can rightly be exercised over anyone against their will is to prevent harm to others. This harm principle rejects paternalism and legal moralism, and Mill defended free speech because even false opinions help keep the truth alive.

John Rawls's A Theory of Justice (1971) revived the social contract. He asks what principles free and equal people would choose in an original position behind a veil of ignorance, not knowing their class, talents, race, sex or values. He argues they would choose two principles: equal basic liberties for all, and fair equality of opportunity with economic inequalities allowed only if they benefit the least advantaged, the difference principle. Because the stakes are high and the odds unknown, the parties would reason cautiously, protecting the worst position. Rawls holds that natural talents and social starting points are morally arbitrary, so justice should not simply let them determine shares.

Robert Nozick replied in Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974) with a libertarian entitlement theory: holdings are just if acquired justly and transferred voluntarily, whatever pattern results. His Wilt Chamberlain example argues that maintaining any pattern requires constant interference with liberty, and he compared redistributive taxation to forced labor; only a minimal state is justified. Karl Marx criticized capitalism for exploiting workers and alienating them from their labor, arguing that formally free contracts hide unequal power. Communitarians such as Michael Sandel argue that Rawls's choosers are 'unencumbered selves' cut off from community. Finally, Martin Luther King Jr. defended civil disobedience: openly and nonviolently breaking unjust laws while accepting the penalty, as an appeal to the community's conscience.

Key ideas

• Hobbes argued that fear and insecurity in the state of nature justify an absolute sovereign.
• Locke grounded government in consent to protect natural rights and defended a right of revolution.
• Rousseau located legitimacy in the general will, aimed at the common good.
• Mill's harm principle permits coercion only to prevent harm to others.
• Rawls's veil of ignorance leads to equal basic liberties and the difference principle.
• Nozick's entitlement theory judges justice by the history of holdings, not their pattern.
• Marxist, communitarian and civil disobedience arguments challenge or refine liberal theories of justice.

Formulas and rules

Common mistakes

• Treating Hobbes and Locke as having the same view of the state of nature.
• Saying Rawls's difference principle requires strict equality; it permits inequalities that help the worst-off.
• Judging a Rawlsian comparison by the size of the gap rather than the position of the least advantaged.
• Thinking Mill's harm principle forbids laws protecting others; it forbids only coercion for self-regarding conduct.
• Confusing the general will with majority vote.

Before the test, make sure you can

• Compare Hobbes's and Locke's states of nature and the governments each justifies.
• Explain Locke's labor theory of property and his proviso.
• Distinguish Rousseau's general will from the will of all.
• Apply Mill's harm principle to cases of paternalism and legal moralism.
• Explain the original position, the veil of ignorance and Rawls's two principles.
• Apply the difference principle to compare distributions described with numbers.
• Explain Nozick's entitlement theory, the Wilt Chamberlain argument and Marx's critique of capitalism.
• Define civil disobedience and explain King's defense of it.

Words to know

State of nature

The hypothetical condition of people without government, used to justify political authority.

Social contract

An agreement, actual or hypothetical, that grounds political authority in the consent of the governed.

Leviathan

Hobbes's 1651 work arguing for an absolute sovereign to prevent a war of all against all.

Natural rights

Rights people have independently of government; for Locke, life, liberty and property.

Labor theory of property

Locke's view that mixing one's labor with unowned things makes them one's property.

Lockean proviso

Locke's condition that appropriation must leave enough and as good for others.

General will

Rousseau's term for the will of citizens directed at the common good.

Harm principle

Mill's principle that coercion is justified only to prevent harm to others.

Paternalism

Restricting a person's liberty for that person's own good.

Original position

Rawls's hypothetical situation in which parties choose principles of justice behind a veil of ignorance.

Veil of ignorance

Rawls's device that hides each person's position, talents and values when choosing principles.

Difference principle

Rawls's principle that inequalities are just only if they benefit the least advantaged.

Maximin

A decision rule that picks the option with the best worst outcome.

Entitlement theory

Nozick's view that holdings are just if justly acquired and transferred.

Wilt Chamberlain argument

Nozick's example showing that free exchanges upset any patterned distribution.

Alienation

Marx's term for workers' estrangement from their product, labor, others and human nature.

Communitarianism

The view, held by Sandel and others, that persons are shaped by communities, criticizing the unencumbered self.

Civil disobedience

Public, nonviolent, conscientious breaking of a law, with acceptance of the penalty.

Sample practice questions

30 more questions like these, from level 1 to 5, are in the practice set.