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Full Idea
The veil of ignorance is very effective for making people see beyond their vested interests and goals. And yet it does little to ensure an open scrutiny of local and possibly parochial values.
Clarification
'Parochial' implies narrow-minded
Gist of Idea
The veil of ignorance encourages neutral interests, but not a wider view of values
Source
Amartya Sen (The Idea of Justice [2009], 06 'Original')
Book Ref
Sen, Amartya: 'The Idea of Justice' [Penguin 2010], p.128
A Reaction
Communitarians also make a similar criticism of Rawls - that people in the initial position simplify themselves into pure rational agents looking for 'basic goods'.
| 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] |