[lbo-talk] Re: biz ethics/slavery/groups/constitutional rights

Luke Weiger lweiger at umich.edu
Mon Aug 23 13:59:31 PDT 2004


It seems pretty clear that the basic liberties Rawls advocates for all wouldn't allow for the "persecution" of any minority group. Whether not allowing gays to marry counts as persecution is a tougher question.

(Something I've been thinking about a lot as I write my thesis on consequentialism, contractualism, and punishment is how a Rawlsian can justify depriving criminals of their basic liberties without using the sorts of justifications that would _contingently_ permit "telishment." Also having trouble seeing how Scanlon's view can avoid similar problems.)

-- Luke

----- Original Message -----

From: andie nachgeborenen

To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org

Sent: Monday, August 23, 2004 2:05 PM

Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Re: biz ethics/slavery/groups/constitutional rights

jks writes:

> You have to be procedurally correct too, and in fast, procedural

correctness trumps [being right].

But doesn't that mean that something that is procedurally correct, but

results in persecution (as in the case of anti-same-sex marriage

amendments) is possible under Rawlsian notions of liberal democracy?

* * * *

What do you want, a guarantee that nothing can go wrong? Rawls calls his approach imperfect procedural justice -- because we know that the outcomes will not always be ideal. The best you can have in advance is to have fair procedures for resolving disagreements about important things on which people who may otherwise deeply disagree on fundamentals can agree. What alternative do you suggest to fair procedure? Which includes protections for rights, btw, but as we see, in times of stress, these are not ironclad. However, what is? jks

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