Paradojas de la filiación kantiana de Rawls

Abstract

While it is undeniably so in some aspects and in Rawls stated intention as well, the never quite resolved question of the Kantian leanings of his works is not free of controversy or rather of paradoxical situations which, to our understanding, illustrate the very sense of his work. The root of these paradoxes seems to lie with the fact that while his work follows the Anglo-Saxon tradition, the implicit ethical system which it forms part of is that of a type of utilitarianism which it never gives up completely. The most visible external expression of these paradoxical situations can be found in the very evolution of the theory, moving from its initial affirmation of Kantian morals toward a political, not metaphysical. formulation; nevertheless, it is precisely at this political moment when it is closest to Kantian morals. Perhaps with this, Rawls is offering us the key to another unresolved question of our times: that of the relationship between ethics and politics.