What kind of person does a just society need? Some Reflections Inspired by John Rawls
This article examines the early ethical thought of John Rawls through his thesis from 1942, A Brief Inquiry into the Meaning of Sin and Faith: An Interpretation Based on the Concept of Community, with particular attention to its implications for understanding the later development of his political philosophy. Written when Rawls was twenty-one and deeply engaged with Christian theology, his thesis presents an explicitly theological account of human nature, sin, faith, and community. His central claim is that the fundamental moral problem is not primarily the pursuit of the wrong object, or the satisfaction of inappropriate desires, but the distortion of personal relations and the destruction of community. Rawls distinguishes between natural and personal relations and argues that the latter constitute the proper sphere of ethical life. Sin is consequently understood as a repudiation of community, while faith represents an openness to God and to other persons through which community is restored.
This article argues that several themes already present in the young Rawls anticipate important elements of his mature philosophy: the moral significance of distinct persons, the rejection of society as a mere bargain among self-interested individuals, the priority of fair interpersonal relations over the maximization of a subjectiv good, and the importance of social institutions for sustaining relations of equality and mutual respect. At the same time, significant discontinuities must be recognized. The mature Rawls abandons the theological vocabulary of sin, grace, salvation, and divine revelation and develops a political conception of justice capable of accommodating reasonable pluralism. The article concludes by suggesting that the early thesis is valuable not because it provides a theological foundation for justice as fairness, but because it reveals an enduring anthropological concern underlying Rawls’ work: what kind of human relations and moral dispositions are necessary if a society is to become just?
DOI:
