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All 8 Flashcards — Distributive justice
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Question
Distributive justice?
Answer
How a society fairly shares out goods, wealth and opportunities — how the good things of life are divided.
Question
Rawls' 'veil of ignorance'?
Answer
Designing society's rules without knowing your own place in it, so you'd choose rules that protect everyone, especially the worst-off.
Question
The cake-cutting image?
Answer
The person who cuts the cake takes the last slice, so they cut it evenly — the veil applied to a whole society.
Question
Why does Rawls say you'd protect the worst-off?
Answer
Facing your whole life with no do-over and not knowing your place, you'd guard the floor in case the bottom turns out to be you.
Question
Hayek: 'an empty phrase without determinable content'?
Answer
In a market no one distributes incomes, so outcomes can be unlucky but not unjust — 'social justice' has no clear content.
Question
Hayek's weather analogy?
Answer
Market outcomes emerge from millions of choices like weather from many winds — unlucky, but with no author to be 'unjust'.
Question
Where do Rawls and Hayek clash (Go further)?
Answer
On whether justice needs an agent: Hayek says only a person's acts can be unjust; Rawls says we choose the rules, so their outcomes are ours.
Question
Rawls vs Hayek in one line?
Answer
Design society for the worst-off (Rawls) vs let outcomes emerge because no one distributes (Hayek).
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Full study notes for Distributive justice
Topic 7.2 hub
Justice
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