Rawls' theory of justice: a naturalistic evaluation(1)

This article critically evaluates John Rawls' theory of justice from a naturalistic perspective. The naturalistic approach is increasingly advocated in contemporary epistemology, philosophy of science, and philosophy of logic. Recently this approach has also become more influential in the study of ethics. Based on an experimental study on social justice conducted in Hong Kong, Beijing, and Taipei, this article argues that although Rawls' theory of justice has a naturalistic flavor, it has difficulty in standing up against the scrutiny of empirical tests if he commits himself to a fully fledged naturalistic approach.