Fair Equality of Opportunity: Reconceiving Affirmative Action through a Rawlsian Lens

This paper examines common and past applications of affirmative action, including arguments for and against the application; presents John Rawls’ theory of justice, and proposes a framework using Rawls’ theory for future applications of affirmative action. The proposal relieves heavily on the principle of fair equality of opportunity, both as an indicator for when using affirmative action is appropriate as well as a tool to help identify the people that affirmative action programs should target. Using this framework, the public education system is identified as a sector of society that fails to provide fair equality of opportunity for all citizens, and an example of how the Rawlsian conception of affirmative action should be used in practice to help address the inequalities and help restore equality of opportunity within the public education system is given. Objections to affirmative action, both in general and more specifically tailored to the model proposed in this paper, are raised and responded to. This paper comes to the conclusion that affirmative action programs, when targeted towards individuals who are denied fair equality of opportunity and have low rates of social mobility, will help create a more just society. Acknowledgements I would like to extend my gratitude to Professor Rajczi for his assistance and guidance in the process of researching and writing this paper; the Philosophy Department at Claremont McKenna; Professor Schroeder, for it is in his class that I started to think about affirmative action in a philosophical light; Professor Skinner; the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation; and my sisters, Casey, Sabrina, and Jessica. Most importantly, I would like to thank my mother for years of unwavering support and encouragement. Table of