Graduation Year
2025
Date of Submission
3-2025
Document Type
Campus Only Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Philosophy
Reader 1
Paul Hurley
Terms of Use & License Information
Rights Information
2025 Henry A Fina
Abstract
In this thesis, I aim to bring together two seemingly irreconcilable philosophical accounts: John Rawls’ political conception of justice as fairness and Alasdair MacIntyre’s communitarian moral theory. I argue that Rawls’ justice as fairness provides a strong political framework for the protection of basic rights and liberties, pluralism, and distributive justice. However, his account does not adequately articulate the mechanisms by which historically embedded individuals develop into communities of virtuous citizens capable of maintaining just institutions. In particular, Rawls’ conception of the moral agent’s two moral powers requires conditions and means for moral development that his framework does not sufficiently address. I will begin by reviewing Rawls’ theory of justice and highlight specific gaps and tensions within Rawls’ framework. To address these theoretical shortcomings, I will use MacIntyre’s conception of virtues, shared practices, and the narrative self, supplemented by the Aristotelian conception of leisure. I will demonstrate how aspects of MacIntyre’s account integrate smoothly into Rawls’ justice as fairness. I will then show how this joint framework provides the moral infrastructure for the development of a Rawlsian citizen through shared practices, virtues, and communal standards of excellence. For citizens to pursue essential shared practices, they must have discretionary time. Expanding the index of primary social goods to include leisure, and establishing a state responsibility to build civic infrastructure for shared practices, ensures all citizens may develop into moral agents capable of realizing Rawls’ highest-order interests. This complete liberal-communitarian account offers a corrective framework for democratic citizens’ moral development. Beyond theoretical philosophical inquiry, this thesis may suggest means for addressing the fragmentation and isolation plaguing contemporary liberal democracies.
Recommended Citation
Fina, Henry A., "Leisure for Justice, Virtue for Democracy: An Inquiry into Renewing the Soul of the Democratic Citizen" (2025). CMC Senior Theses. 4023.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/4023
This thesis is restricted to the Claremont Colleges current faculty, students, and staff.
