Abstract

Rules of justice will benefit individuals little if they lack an effective desire to comply with these rules. In A Theory of Justice, Rawls assumes that individuals possess a sense of justice. In Morals By Agreement, Gauthier eschews this strong assumption. And although Gauthier explains how individuals might develop a sense of justice, he fails to establish that rationality requires them to do so. I seek to derive from Gauthier-style premises what Gauthier fails to establish and what Rawls assumes: that instrumental rationality requires individuals to maintain a sense of justice. ;Although living among possessors of a sense of justice benefits individuals, maintaining such a disposition is costly. Further, individuals can benefit from others possessing a sense of justice without themselves possessing one. Why should rational individuals maintain a sense of justice? ;Consider rational contractors who wish to implement rules of justice. I develop a two-part argument that lacking a sense of justice, such contractors would choose to remedy this lack. ;First, I establish that were all contractors to maintain a sense of justice, all would do better than were all to fail to do so. To show this, I conceive of contractors as selecting a joint strategy for implementing rules of justice. I argue that such contractors must choose between two feasible strategies. On one, contractors empower an enforcement mechanism. On the other, contractors empower an enforcement mechanism and develop a sense of justice. By appealing to the enforcement savings and trust enjoyed by possessors of a sense of justice, I argue that contractors would choose the latter strategy, the transformer strategy. ;Second, I establish that maintaining a sense of justice promises individuals a higher payoff than not doing so. Having chosen the transformer strategy, contractors must choose between two individual strategies, maintaining a sense of justice or pretending to do so. By appealing to the threat posed to fakers by a transformer enforcement mechanism, I argue that contractors would choose to maintain a sense of justice. ;Thus can we justify a sense of justice to those who identify with contractors in the appropriate manner