Phil 401B: Rawls and his Critics: Theories of Justice
(Or The Political Philosophy of John Rawls)
Dr. Amelia M. Wirts
M/W 1:30-3:20pm in Sav 130
Office Hours: M/W 3:30-4:30pm in Sav 381
Course Description:
In this course, we will study John Rawls’s contributions to political philosophy and the critical responses to his theories that inform much of the contemporary debates in political philosophy today. Because of Rawls’s influence, even those who strongly disagree with the content of his theories often use his vocabulary and basic frameworks. Thus, this course will give you additional resources to understand debates in contemporary political philosophy and applied ethics topics like immigration, climate justice, criminal law and punishment, and racial and gender justice.
Rawls’s early work focused on defining and defending principles of justice for a well ordered, just society, building on the best parts of the social contract theory. We will focus on this theory, Justice as Fairness, which he outlined in his book A Theory of Justice. This theory was both highly influential and controversial. We will read three criticisms of this theory, focusing especially on whether his brand of liberalism can effectively support racial and gender justice and whether distributive justice is a good model for justice at all.
Rawls’s later work was focused on how to build workable theory of justice in a world marked by pluralism. He developed a model of political justification in pluralistic societies called Public Reason and a model of liberalism, Political Liberalism, that allows people to pursue various conceptions of the good life with deep metaphysical disagreements while creating just shared institutions. Just as TJ drew harsh criticism, so did PL. We will read Habermas’s famous exchange with Rawls in which he challenges Rawls to clarify whether legitimacy comes from actual acceptance of political principles or their acceptability. We will conclude by revisiting the feminist and racial justice critiques of Rawls to see how they respond to PL.
Course Objectives
- Students will learn the content of Rawls’s key contributions to political philosophy, including his arguments, conceptual tools, and methodologies
- Students will learn the content of some key criticisms and debates that arose from Rawls’s work
- Students will learn critical reading skills that allow them to identify arguments in philosophical texts
- Students will practice raising clarifying and critical questions in response to philosophical texts
- Students will practice writing skills of charitably reconstructing philosophical arguments and raising objections
- Students will learn to write their own arguments engaging with Rawls and his critics
Texts
Students should do their best to have copies of
- John Rawls, A Theory of Justice, Original Edition (TJ) and
- John Rawls, Political Liberalism, Expanded Edition. (PL)
- (the bookstore mistakenly has an additional book, Justice as Fairness, but you DO NOT need that book).
All other texts will be available on Canvas. (actually, I ended up finding PDFs of TJ and PL if you really don't want to buy the books, but the scans are not the highest quality. Plus, the hardcopies look great on your bookshelf!)
The Rawls Lexicon is a great resource if you are trying to understand a particular concept of Rawls's. Use your UW credentials to log in! I will sometimes recommend optional readings from here.
Grade Components
Undergraduate Grade Components
Paper 1: 20%
Paper 2: 25%
Final Paper Proposal: 5%
Final Paper: 30%
Reading Notes Assignments:10%
In-Class Discussion Participation: 10%
Graduate Student Grading:
The final grade for graduate students will be based on final research paper. In order to pass the course, graduate students must also complete the reading notes assignments and in class participation regularly and thoroughly, though this will not directly count towards grades.
Paper Scaffolding Assignments For Graduate Students
Starting week six, you will also have paper scaffolding assignments that are designed to help you build your term paper. More information on these assignments will be given as they approach.
Week 6: short paper topic proposal
Week 7: Annotate 1 outside source
Week 8: Annotate 1 outside source
Week 9: Thesis statement and outline
Week 10: Partial draft of at least 2000 words
Final Paper for Graduate Students: Your final paper should be 4000-6000 words on a topic substantially related to the course material. While I encourage you to find ways to make this paper relevant to your interests, it must be substantially driven by material we read in the course. You should also do some outside research, including at least two articles or chapters from outside the course syllabus. Your paper topic must be approved by me in advance. I also require that, between weeks 6 and 9, each student meet with me at least once to discuss their paper.
Papers (Undergraduate)
You will be given more detailed prompts for the first two papers. Each paper is meant to build a particular philosophical writing skill and build on the last paper’s skill (argument reconstruction, argument construction, raising and responding to objections, developing your own paper topic).
Paper 1: reconstruct the argument for one of Rawls’s key assertions (I will provide specific instructions)
Paper 2: reconstruct the argument of one of the critiques of Rawls, write your own argument about it, raise and respond to an objection to your own argument.
Paper 3: Write your own paper on a topic substantially related to class, building an argument with a thesis statement. Raise and respond to an objection.
Reading Notes Assignments (All Students)
For each class session, you will post your “reading notes” to the Canvas discussion board at least 12 hours before class sessions. You will be graded on the quality and thoroughness of your post.
The purpose of these posts is to practice active reading where you identify the main argument of a text and questions in preparation for class discussion. The assignment also will help you with the skill of argument reconstruction, an essential part of doing philosophy.
Each post should:
- Write 1-2 sentences explaining the thesis or argument the reading is trying to convey. Think of this as the “headline” of the reading. What does the author want to you to take away, and what is the key reason they give to support that headline?
- Write one clarifying question. Is there a term you don’t understand? Is there an argument you don’t follow? Is there an example you wonder if the text applies to? These are not “critical” questions, but questions aimed at understanding the argument that the text is defending.
- Pick out one passage that you think would be worth discussing in class. It might be worth discussing because it is particularly confusing, because it appears to be where an author makes a key point in their argument, or because it contains a key definition or example. It should be between 1 sentence and one paragraph long. Type out at least one sentence. If the passage is long, you can write, “the paragraph beginning with ‘First full sentence of paragraph.’”
Do not include more than this. For 1 and 2, try to balance clarity (your classmates would be able to follow what you write after doing the reading) and concision (your classmates should be able to read it in less than 3 minutes).
I will drop the lowest 4 grades.
Extensions
Students may request extensions in cases if illness or emergency (including mental health). Otherwise, assignments turned in past the deadline may lose 4 points per 24 hours they are late, up to 20 points.
In Class Participation (All students)
This class will include a lot of discussion and will operate more like a seminar than a lecture. The Reading Notes assignments should help prepare you to participate in class discussions. Each class, we will do small group work in addition to full class lecture/discussion. Regular active participation in small group discussion is required for full credit on participation, and regular participation in full class discussion is strongly encouraged.
Further Course, Department, and University Policies
You are responsible for knowing the Philosophy Department and University policies that are contained in this document.
Papers and other assignments that are plagiarized or otherwise violate the academic dishonesty policy may receive a zero.
Tentative Reading Schedule:
TJ= Theory of Justice, PL= Political Liberalism, All other readings in Readings folder and linked in Weekly Modules
This schedule is subject to change by the professor. Students should check Weekly Modules for most up-to-date reading before each week of class.
Week 1
March 25: Watch short video introducing Rawls and Theory of Justice (TJ)
March 27: TJ Ch. I intro §§1–4, 8
Week 2
April 1: TJ, Ch. II, intro and §§11–17
April 3: TJ, Ch III, intro and §§20–25
Week 3
April 8: TJ, Ch III, §§ 26–28, "Reflective Equilibrium" from the Rawls Lexicon
April 10: Tj, Ch. III §§ 29-30, "The Four Stage Sequence" and "Self-Respect" from the Rawls Lexicon
Optional TJ readings: TJ, Ch. IV, intro and §§ 33–35, 39–40 Ch VII, intro, §§ 66–68, Ch. VIII intro, §69, § 77, Ch IX, intro and §§ 78–79, 85–86
Week 4
April 15: Susan Moller Okin, “Justice as Fairness: For Whom?” from Justice, Gender, and the Family
April 17: G.A. Cohen, “Where the Action Is: On the Site of Distributive Justice”
Paper 1 due
Week 5
April 22: Charles Mills, “The Domination Contract” from Contract and Domination
April 24: PL Lecture I
Week 6
April 29: PL Lecture II §§1, 3, 7, 8
May 1: PL Lecture III
Paper 2 Due
Week 7
May 6: PL Lecture IV
May 8: PL Lecture V
Week 8
May 13: PL Lecture VI
May 15: Jurgen Habermas “Reconciliation Through the Public use of Reason: Remarks on John Rawls's Political Liberalism”
Final Paper Proposal Due
Week 9
May 20: Rawls “Political Liberalism: A Response to Habermas”
May 22: Susan Moller Okin “Political Liberalism, Justice, and Gender”
Week 10
May 27: NO CLASS (memorial day)
May 29: Charles Mills, “Rawls on Race/Race in Rawls” from Black Rights/White Wrongs
Final Paper due Tuesday of Finals Week