Do You Agree with John Rawls’ Analysis That We Cannot Claim Credit for Our Personal Achievements? Please Discuss His Arguments and Potential Criticism.

Do you agree with John Rawls’ analysis that we cannot claim credit for our personal achievements? Please discuss his arguments and potential criticism.

Igor Melnik, Group 2, Generation 2014

During our discussions of John Rawls statement in the class that we are entitled to the results of our work but we cannot morally claim credit for our achievements, I started thinking about my own experience and achievements. My first reaction was to reject his statements. His ideas did not sound logical to me – from the early age, I was taught that the education is a key for my success and everything depends on me. During my student years I did my best to educate myself and to get from the university as much as possible. And before all these discussions I truly believed that everything I have now - my achievements, my family, my work, the social status and my education could only be possible because of my hard work and all the personal efforts I had invested. But the more I think about Rawls’s ideas and famous examples, the more I discuss his ideas with other colleagues after classes, the more I like Rawls’s concepts and find the logic behind. I would agree with him to certain extent, however, it would be wrong to fully deny our personal contribution for our achievements. In this essay I will try to analyse his arguments and point out possible limitations of his analysis.

In order to prove his hypothesis, first of all John Rawls is referring to the genetic lottery. According to his explanation, genes have significant influence on human being’s physical appearance, talents, skills, intelligence and so on. And if we as individuals cannot influence on our genes or on the combination of our genes we cannot claim moral credit for our achievements which we received due to these genes. I would not fully agree with this argument. Of course, genes have a significant influence on us, especially on our physical appearance. It is scientifically proven that certain genes are responsible for eyes colour, our height, etc. But scientists also have difficulties to point out which genes are responsible for such characteristics as talents, skills or intelligence. Genes or combination of genes which are responsible for laziness, creativeness, absolute pitch have not been found yet (if they exist at all). However, it is possible to explain these characteristics from the neurological point of view. Human brain is constantly creating connections between neurons while thinking, reading or practicing some activities. The more a person is practicing something, the more stable and complex neuron networks are created. Complex developed neuron network determines our skills or intelligence. To bring a practical example, when I started to play Checkers it was difficult for me even to finish the game. But the more I played, the better result I gained, and after some time I can even win my father. However, one can argue that some people could be born with already existing neuron networks in the brain and others have to develop it by themselves. I would partially agree with this contra argument. I believe that the combination of genes which are “programming” all possible combinations of human characteristics, talents or skills is simply not enough. All talents, skills or intelligence have to be developed further in order their capacity to be used. I would agree that some people are more gifted with some talents or skills than others. But it would be difficult to achieve some meaningful results without the development of our skills and talents and irrespective of what we have from the start of our lives. In my opinion people have the moral right to claim appreciation for the skills and talents they obtained through their work.  

...