Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 5

Ethics - Essay Example In a society, this is applied to adopting policies which should serve the greatest number of people or the majority of the population and the course of action that would be untaken should have a net effect of increasing happiness.   Advocates of libertarian principles, by contrast generally criticize any distributive ideal that requires the pursuit of economic ‘patterns’, such as maximization or equality of welfare or of material goods. They argue that the pursuit of such patterns conflicts with the more important moral demands of liberty or self-ownership (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). I am more inclined to side with utilitarian justice because it is more applicable in today’s modern society that any act, policy or idea should serve the greatest number of people. It has also practical applications which in fact is even used today such the concept of progressive taxation which is really Rawl’s idea of distributive justice because this taxation tak es more from the rich and gives them more to the one who has less. 2. Explain as fully as you can John Rawls â€Å"Theory of Justice† Do you agree with theory of justice? Why or why not?   In Rawl’s theory of justice, he advance two kinds of justice which is the merit theory which as the title suggests, rewards the person depending upon one’s contribution to society. The other which is more applicable to this case is the need theory which posits that society has an obligation to help other members of society who are in need which will â€Å"balance† their disadvantaged position. In his Theory of Justice, Rawl envisions a â€Å"society of free citizens holding equal basic rights cooperating within an egalitarian economic system† (STandford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).   Thus, the issue of redistributive justice follows this principle that our government ought to redistribute wealth for the purposes of making the distribution of goods more equal. This principle of redistributive justice is not only ideal but also has practical implications. Ideal because the inequalities of society will be addressed through government mechanisms such as collecting more taxes from those who earns more so that it can give more to those who have less. I agree with Rawl’s theory of justice because of its practical implication that it minimizes or blunts the cause of social upheavals which is inequality, injustice and poverty. We all know that the chaotic countries in the Third Worlds are all caused by these elements; widespread poverty, injustice and inequality. By removing or minimizing the ill effect of widespread inequity through the government’s intervention, society will become more stable and less prone to social upheavals because those who have less, will also have less reason to complain and protest against the government. Elements in society who want to sow discontent, chaos or terror will not also prosper because the peo ple are sympathetic to the government and they cannot be agitated to go against the government because they do not feel the injustice and poverty of which chaos, anarchy and terror breeds. The other practical implication of this redistributive justice is that there will be greater social mobility in society where people has equal chance to succeed even if they have less because the government will fill in the social equation where their poverty will not