PYQ Vault · Paper 1 · Justice

Rawls’ idea of the ‘liberal self’ is too individualistic. Explain, in this context, the communitarian critique of Rawls’ theory of justice.

How the answer moves

The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.

Flow snapshot — how the answer moves
Intro routes
Sandel: self constituted by its ends, not prior → “wholly without character" → neutral state misreads justice, rights only a remedy for individualism → MacIntyre: morality lives in narrative + tradition — Taylor: anti-atomism, self within webs of interlocution — Walzer: no universal metric, complex equality from social meanings of goods — unifying move: good prior to right
Body flow
community norms can shield hierarchy / patriarchy / caste — Rawls’ Political Liberalism (overlapping consensus) answers the metaphysical- self charge
Counter-view
Rk! critique exposes the embeddedness Rawls understated, without destroying justice as fairness R2 it sharpens liberalism toward a more situated self rather than replacing it

Model answer

Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.

Handwritten model answer — UPSC PSIR 2023, Justice