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The savings problem in the original position: assessing and revising a model

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Eric Brandstedt
Eric Brandstedt*
Affiliation:
Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK
*
Email: e.brandstedt@lse.ac.uk
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Abstract

The common conception of justice as reciprocity seemingly is inapplicable to relations between non-overlapping generations. This is a challenge also to John Rawls’s theory of justice as fairness. This text responds to this by way of reinterpreting and developing Rawls’s theory. First, by examining the original position as a model, some revisions of it are shown to be wanting. Second, by drawing on the methodology of constructivism, an alternative solution is proposed: an amendment to the primary goods named ‘sustainability of values’. This revised original position lends support to intergenerational justice as fairness.

Keywords

Intergenerational justicefairnessthe original positionmodelsRawlsconstructivismsustainability of values
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 47 , Issue 2-3: Special issue: Ethics and Future Generations , 2017 , pp. 269 - 289
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Journal of Philosophy 2016

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