Thirteenth International Conference on Design Principles & Practices

Abstract

The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary defines the word design as a plan or scheme conceived in the mind: a project. An idea as executed, the combination of elements in the finished work. The aim of this paper is to examine the core concepts of design and practice in contemporary social and political theory. The conjunction with the word practice as noted in this conference is important but not necessary. In this discussion, then, I shall single out one of the most well known and monumental work in recent attempts to generate theories of distribution justice-John Rawls, A Theory of Justice, (TJ: 1971/1999). Thus his theory of justice is an attempt to generate a design for a well ordered society (TJ: Sec. 69:397/405). Moreover, a theory so conceived presupposes a search for fundamental principles with which to anchor a theory of justice. This may not be a sufficient requirement in theory construction as conceived in social and political science as well as the humanistic disciplines (say, moral and/or ethical theory), but it is a necessary requirement. Consequently these principles are, in fact, best exemplified in Rawls’s now famous two principles of justice.