John Rawls, the great modern theorist of liberalism, passed away in late November. Since the publication in 1971 of his masterpiece, A Theory of Justice, he could be said to have set the standard of excellence for a generation of philosophers. He used the philosophical stature of a Kantian to revive the 18th century Enlightenment tradition of respect for rationality and led British-American thought in a more pluralistic, fruitful and humanistic direction.
In A Theory of Justice, Rawls posits two principles of justice. First, the principle of equal basic liberty for all emphasizes fundamental freedoms and human rights such as political freedom, freedom of speech and thought, freedom of assembly, freedom of conscience and legally guaranteed personal freedoms. Everyone must be equal and no discrimination or differential treatment can be allowed. Second, the principle of disparity emphasizes that the social welfare system should be used to redress the problems of socially and economically underprivileged groups to redistribute wealth in society.
These two principles could be called common values of our era. Rawls' contribution was to provide a philosophical framework to link ethics, politics, society and economics.
Like other major philosophers, Rawls devoted his entire life to his philosophical explorations. In his major work, Political Liberalism, he develops the concept of an "overlapping consensus" to refine the above-mentioned view of justice based on the idea of "justice as fairness." In my opinion, Rawls' view of justice as defined by overlapping consensus is quite valuable as a tool to edify us here in Taiwan, where social and political disputes of all sorts stem from a split in the public's sense of national identity.
This split is usually indicated by independence-versus-unification sentiment and distinctions drawn along ethnic lines. In fact, however, such indicators are often used in a simplistic manner which gives rise to many senseless squabbles. Regarding the independence-versus-unification issue, if we consider the situation today, I'm afraid only a small handful of people actually advocate unification. Regarding distinctions drawn along ethnic lines, due to historical factors, a sort of ethnic standoff has indeed taken shape.
But actually, there are no fundamental differences between Taiwan's ethnic groups in the important characteristics that usually differentiate ethnic groups -- such as race, language, culture, religion and customs. Assessing intractable ethnic conflicts in other countries that are rooted in race or religion, we see that the situation in Taiwan is patently different. Nevertheless, we can not ignore the ethnic discord that has long existed in Taiwanese society, the different aspirations people hold for the future relationship across the Taiwan Strait, or the friction that has arisen between ethnic groups in the political, social and economic spheres.
Taiwan's party politics are able to rely completely on party leaders and there is no need for platform policies for democracy to develop. "Dump and save" strategic voting campaigns are employed openly, even to the extent that some politicians competing in the same election may urge voters to vote for a certain opponent and not to vote for themselves. Such complete disregard for the basic protocol of party politics makes a mockery of the system and distorts democracy.
In developing free-market systems, as soon as the issue of class domination inherent in the market mechanism is replaced by the ethnicity issue, then capitalists can use their ethnic status to conceal their class status. This will lead to a distortion of mechanisms designed to redistribute wealth in society and rectify unfairness resulting from resource allocation by the market mechanism.
Rawls' theory of overlapping consensus could be called a thorough realization of liberalism's high regard for justice and emphasis on the spirit of tolerance. On the one hand, he proposed that a system of constitutional government established on principles of justice must represent the public's overlapping consensus. On the other hand, he emphasized that differences of religion, culture and values of all sorts should be treated tolerantly in a liberal society. The split in the Taiwanese public's sense of national identity stems from differences in people's backgrounds and has been exacerbated by particular historical incidents as well as political, social and economic systems that have long benefited particular ethnic groups and do not easily accord with fairness and justice.
The solution is to work hard to establish fair and just political, social and economic systems to make Taiwan a true constitutional democracy that guarantees human rights and shows concern for people's welfare. This will consolidate the overlapping consensus among all people, and the procedures of constitutional government can serve as a mechanism for solving major domestic disputes. It is also necessary to demonstrate a spirit of rational tolerance, accepting the divergent views resulting from ethnic differences as well as promoting tolerance and appreciation for different religious beliefs and different viewpoints in order to construct a diverse society that is rich in culture. If this can be done, the many divergent views in Taiwanese society will no longer be the source of social friction and will instead finally become the roots of a rich society and culture.
Ho Hsin-chuan is a professor in the Department of Philosophy at National Cheng-chi University.
Translated by Ethan Harkness
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