Abstract

The Difference Principle is one of the most original and disputed components of Rawls’ theory of justice. The DP, which is contained in the second of Rawls’ two principles, says that social and economic inequalities are to be to the greatest benefit of the least-advantaged members of society. The aim of my paper is to defend the DP, or at least its main idea. To this end, I will first recapitulate Rawls’ explication of the DP, and then give a brief review of his theory in general and of his various arguments for the DP in particular. After that, I scrutinize Rawls’ justification of the DP, with the result that his arguments do not succeed. Since I nevertheless regard the DP as a sound principle of socio-economic justice, finally I attempt to defend it in a slightly modified form.