初始权益与分配正义

Primary Goods and Distributive Justice

初始权益是罗尔斯政治哲学最重要的术语之一,依照罗尔斯初始权益理论,人的初始权益由两部分组成：（1）天赋初始权益,包括健康、精力、智力和想象力;（2）社会初始权益,包括自由、权利、权力、机会、收入、财富和尊严的社会基础。分配正义调节的主要是社会初始权益。诺齐克用术语＂持有权益＂表示在＂最弱小国家＂概念下个人的天赋持有权益,批评罗尔斯分配正义理论是在为＂较强势国家＂张目。森和努斯鲍姆则试图用＂可行能力＂概念取代＂初始权益＂概念,作为测量社会弱者的指标。人的天赋初始权益是偶然的、不确定的,由个人持有,却不由个人应得。它们要成为分配正义的调整对象,就要转化成社会初始权益。尽管罗尔斯说我们只要知道在较大受益者权益分配将如何影响最少受益者的期望就足够了,但他没有清晰解释这种转移是如何发生的,而诺齐克否定这种转移的可能性。因此,要批评罗尔斯分配正义理论,先要准确理解他的初始权益理论。

' Primary goods' is one of the most important terms in John Rawls' political philosophy. According to Rawls' primary goods theory,a person has two kinds of primary goods. The first one is natural primary goods,including health vigor,intelligence and imagination. The second social primary goods,like freedom,rights,powers,opportunities,income,wealth and dignity. Social primary goods should be regulated by distributive justice. Robert Nozick uses the term ' holdings' to express individual natural holdings under the concept of ' minimal state' and criticize that Rawls' justice theory just boosts stronger states' arrogance. Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum try to replace ' primary goods' with ' capabilities' as the indicators of the meas-urement of the weak. Natural primary goods are accidental and uncertain,they are held by individuals,but not deserved by individuals. Only if an individual's natural primary goods are transformed into social primary goods,they will be regulated by distributive justice. Rawls does not explain this transformation clearly,although he argues that it's sufficient to know how the goods distribution of the more beneficiaries affects the expectations of the least beneficiaries. However,the possibility of the transformation is denied by Robert Nozick.So criticizing John Rawls' distributive justice theory should accurately understand his primary goods theory.