Consider the following statements regarding Rawls' ideas on Justice:
(A) Problem of Justice is the fair distribution of Primary goods.
(B) He recognizes his theory of Justice as pure Procedural Justice.
Which of the above statement is correct?

Question

Consider the following statements regarding Rawls' ideas on Justice: 
(A) Problem of Justice is the fair distribution of Primary goods. 
(B) He recognizes his theory of Justice as pure Procedural Justice. 
Which of the above statement is correct?

Accepted Answer

The correct option is 3:

Both (A) and (B) are correct regarding John Rawls’s theory of Justice, as presented in his seminal work, *A Theory of Justice*.

**Detailed explanation of why it is correct — include conceptual, or contextual depth:**

The correct option is 3: Both (A) & (B) are correct.

**(A) Problem of Justice is the fair distribution of Primary goods:** This statement is fundamentally correct. John Rawls defines the subject of justice as the basic structure of society—the way in which the major social institutions distribute fundamental rights and duties and determine the division of advantages from social cooperation. The goods that these institutions distribute are the **Primary Goods**. Rawls identifies these primary goods as things that every rational person is presumed to want, regardless of their particular life plan. They include basic rights and liberties, powers and opportunities, income and wealth, and the social bases of self-respect $$3$$. For Rawls, the two Principles of Justice are specifically designed to regulate the fair distribution of these primary goods. His entire theoretical apparatus, including the Original Position and the Veil of Ignorance, is a mechanism to establish principles for this fair distribution.

**(B) He recognizes his theory of Justice as pure Procedural Justice:** This statement is also correct, though it requires careful differentiation from other types of procedural justice. Rawls distinguishes between three types: perfect, imperfect, and pure procedural justice. Perfect procedural justice has a criterion for a just outcome *and* a procedure guaranteed to reach it (like dividing a cake). Imperfect procedural justice has a criterion for a just outcome but no procedure guaranteed to reach it (like a criminal trial). Rawls argues that his theory operates under **pure procedural justice**. In pure procedural justice, there is no independent criterion for the right result; instead, the result is considered fair and just *because* it is the outcome of following a fair procedure. For Rawls, the fair procedure is the decision-making process within the Original Position, where rational individuals choose the principles of justice from behind the Veil of Ignorance. Since the principles themselves (the output) are derived from a perfectly fair initial situation (the input/procedure), any resulting arrangement that complies with these principles is considered just.

**The incorrect option is 1 (Only (A) is correct) and 2 (Only (B) is correct):**

Options 1 and 2 are incorrect because they claim only one part of the composite statement is correct, whereas both (A) and (B) accurately reflect key elements of Rawls’s theory of justice. If statement (A) were correct but (B) incorrect (Option 1), it would imply that Rawls sees justice solely as achieving a certain state (fair distribution of goods) but that the mechanism used to derive the rules is not purely procedural, which is contrary to his methodology. Conversely, if statement (B) were correct but (A) incorrect (Option 2), it would mean his theory employs a pure procedural method without aiming to distribute primary goods, ignoring the central subject matter of his two principles. Since Rawls explicitly links the fairness of the outcome (the distribution of primary goods) to the fairness of the decision-making process (the pure procedural nature of the Original Position), both components are essential and correct descriptions of his theory.

**The incorrect option is 4 (Neither (A), nor (B) is correct):**

Option 4 is incorrect because it dismisses both core tenets of Rawls’s theory. As established, the fair distribution of primary goods is the primary problem Rawls addresses, and pure procedural justice is the primary method he uses to generate the principles for solving that problem. Denying both statements would mean rejecting the foundational subject and methodology of *A Theory of Justice*.