A fraternidade e sua interpretação à luz do princípio de diferença no pensamento de John Rawls

Abstract

This research investigates to what extent the difference principle considers the idea of fraternity as a political category in the philosophy of John Rawls. To do so, we analyze his works Uma Teoria da Justiça (1971) and, in a complementary way, O Liberalismo Político (1993). For Rawls, to think of fraternity as a political conception is feasible if it is imagined as an ideal that meets the requirements of the difference principle. From this perspective, the inequalities allowed by just institutions only happen if they contribute to the well-being of persons who are less fortunate, and in this sense, they seem to meet the demands of fraternity. Therefore, to shed light on this understanding, we organize the text into four chapters, besides the introduction and the final remarks. The first chapter regards the theoretical framework of the theory of justice as fairness and some of its main concepts. The second chapter introduces distributive justice as in Uma Teoria da Justiça, as well as some criticisms by communitarians to justice as fairness. The third chapter addresses the principle of fraternity, and the fourth chapter makes some considerations on distributive shares in a way to analyze the concept of justice in political economy and the main institutions for a democratic equality. Additionally, we reflect upon intergenerational justice and the social minimum.