John Rawls was a professor of philosophy at Harvard University who developed the theory of justice as fairness. He argued that justice means giving each person what they deserve or are due. Rawls identified three kinds of justice: compensatory justice refers to compensation for wrongful actions; retributive justice refers to just punishments for wrongdoers; and distributive justice refers to the just distribution of benefits and burdens in society. Distributive justice theories include egalitarianism, which calls for equal shares; capitalist justice, which ties shares to contributions; and socialist justice, which ties shares to needs.

1. Justice & Fairness:
Promoting the
Common Good

2. The Nature of the Theory

3. John Rawls
• The first and unique contributor to the study of
Ethics.
• Professor of Philosophy at Harvard University
• He develop the “The Theory of the Good as Justice
and Justice conceived as Fairness.
• Justice means giving each person what he or she
deserves or, in more traditional terms, giving each
person his or her due.

4. Three Kinds of Justice

5. COMPENSATORY JUSTICE
Refers to the just way of
compensating people for what they
lost as a result of wrongful actions
done on them.

6. RETRIBUTIVE JUSTICE
Refers to the just imposition of
punishments and penalties on those
guilty of performing wrongful acts.

7. DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE
Refers to the just distribution of benefits
(such as rights & socioeconomic goods)
and burdens (such as sacrifice and
obligations).

8. a) Egalitarianism
• This theory claims that a certain distribution is
just if every member of a group receives an equal
share of the distribution. On the level of states
(or governmental) distributions.

9. b) Capitalist Justice
• This theory claims that a certain
distribution is just if every member of a
group receives his or her share in the
distribution according to or in
proportion to his or her contribution to
the success of the goals of the group.

10. c) Socialist Justice
This theory claims that a certain
distribution is just if every member of the
group receives his or her share in the
distribution according to or in proportion
to his or her needs