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Full Idea
The principles of justice are chosen behind a veil of ignorance. ...Since all are similarly situated and no one is able to design principles to favor his particular condition, the principles of justice are the rest of a fair agreement or bargain.
Gist of Idea
Choose justice principles in ignorance of your own social situation
Source
John Rawls (A Theory of Justice [1972], §03)
Book Ref
Rawls,John: 'A Theory of Justice' [OUP 1978], p.12
A Reaction
A famous idea. It tries to impose a Kantian impartiality onto the assessment of political principles. It is a beautifully simple idea, and saying that such impartiality never occurs is no objection to it. Think of a planet far far away.
| 20005 | The rich would never submit to a lottery deciding which part of their society should be slaves [Montesquieu] |
| 18636 | Choose justice principles in ignorance of your own social situation [Rawls] |
| 20595 | You can't distribute goods from behind a veil, because their social meaning is unclear [Walzer, by Tuckness/Wolf] |
| 23109 | The veil of ignorance is only needed because people have bad motivations [Kekes] |
| 20987 | The veil of ignorance encourages neutral interests, but not a wider view of values [Sen] |
| 20568 | The principles Rawls arrives at do not just conform to benevolence, but also result from choices [Oksala] |
| 20593 | The veil of ignorance ensures both fairness and unanimity [Tuckness/Wolf] |
| 22848 | People with strong prior beliefs would have nothing to do with a veil of ignorance [Charvet] |