The Veil Of Ignorance In Rawls Theory Of Justice

In John Rawls' A Theory of Justice, he argues that morally, society should be constructed politically as if we were all behind a veil of ignorance; that is, the rules and precepts of society should be constructed as if we had no prior knowledge of our future wealth, talents, and social status, and could be placed in any other person's societal position (Velasquez, 2008). Through this, Rawls believes that people will create a system of “justice as fairness” because their lack of knowledge regarding who they are will prevent them from arranging a society that would benefit those in their position at the expense of others.

John Rawls was dissatisfied with the traditional philosophical approach to justifying social and political actions therefore he attempted to provide a reasonable theory of social justice through a contract theory approach. In his work, A Theory of Justice, Rawls bases almost the entirety of his piece on the question, what kind of organization of society would rational persons choose if they were in an initial position of independence and equality and setting up a system of cooperation (A Theory of Justice-enotes)? From this seemingly simple question, Rawls goes into further detail describing what he believes society would and should do when setting up a fair and just organizational structure. Throughout his

In his ideal society, “an injustice is tolerable only when it is necessary to avoid an even greater injustice.” Rawls wished to create a system of “justice as fairness” that would be based in equality and justice. This system of “justice as fairness” he claimed began with choosing a “conception of justice that is to regulate all subsequent criticism and reform of institutions.” This “conception of justice” is then, ideally, used as the basis on which an institution would build its constitution, legislature, and so forth.

In his principle of social justice, John Rawls’ liberalism highlights two general standards: the equality principle and the difference principle (Rawls, 1971). In the equality principle, social rights and freedoms are said to be equally distributed to everyone. The difference principle, on the other hand, is the process of raising the most disadvantaged people in society from the bottom to be in a little better position (Rawls, 1971). Rawls has based his choices of principles in the concept of the Veil of Ignorance or the idea of deciding on the principles that should

John Rawls a political theorist engages in various political theories and arguments that contradict, support, and scrutinizes others theories made by other notable political theorist. Rawls contemplates usage of theories such as The Theory of Justice, Veil of Ignorance and Nozick’s Entitlement Theory which will be discussed within this analysis for their relation to society and what benefits or aliments they hold if any on society’s effective function.

Rawls created his “veil of ignorance” as a way to attempt to make society more fair. In this idealized world, individuals would stand

In my understanding John Rawls bases his theory on the veil of ignorance. It’s an imaginative situation that puts all rational people together and lets them make decisions on the justice structure of society without being effected by power or any other influences coming from other

“Rawls argues that people in the original position would agree on two principles as the basic governing principles of their society.” John Rawls, in his “Theory of Justice” sets out principles of Justice in which people would choose to govern their society if located in the “original position.” Under “The Veil of Ignorance,” individuals in the original position are required to be objective and impartial which makes settlements promising.

Rawls has an idea called the “justice as fairness.” He believes that if you place people in a situation that is fair among all the people and they take all relevant information into account, then the ideas they would agree to are also fair. According to Rawls, the original position is crucial to the justice of fairness because it is designed to be a fair and impartial point of view. In taking up this point of view, people are to imagine themselves in the position of free and equal people who agree upon and commit themselves to principles of social and political justice. The main aspect of the original position is the veil of ignorance. It’s job is to take away the person’s knowledge of particular facts about themselves, such as sex, class, race, and ethnicity, that they could use to their advantage or that could be used against them, if put in a certain economic position. The parties have to have some form of knowledge, though, so they are allowed general facts. Things such as people and societies, including knowledge of the laws and economics, psychology, political science, and biology and other natural sciences. Rawls argues that if a person doesn’t know if they will suffer or benefit from society, they will choose the best possible option of the best possible outcome. This all leads back to justice as fairness and the idea that people put in a fair situation will choose fair ideas, also. (Theory of Justice,

Rawls’ primary concern when addressing social justice is what rights and duties members of society have in the prevailing institutions and how the benefits should be distributed. With this, Rawls argues from two primary principles of justice. The first being the equality principle and the second being the difference principle. The equality principle stipulates that each individual must hold the same level of liberty as each other individual. The difference principle advocates that social and economic inequalities be distributed only to the advantage of the worst-off--giving the worst off in society a fair deal. This leads into Rawls’ Original Position.

In Rawls paper, “A Theory of Justice”, Rawl gives us a scenario where he talks about a group of citizens who are gathered to plan their own future society, forming the characteristics of what will eventually become something of a social contract. Rawls call this the “Original Position”. In the original position, the citizens do not know the part they are going to play in the society. The society must be designed behind what he prefers to call it as the Veil Of Ignorance. Rawl describes the Veil of Ignorance as being, “No one knows his place in society, his class position, or social status, nor does any know his fortune in the distribution or natural assets and abilities, his intelligence, strength, and the like” (pg. 597).

Furthermore, they have no concept of social standing or economic standing. The individuals are just capable of reasoning and possess the goal of creating a just society (Rawls 1971, 17). The purpose of the veil is to allow those in the original position to agree on rules pertaining to their own mutual interests. Rawls thinks that behind the veil of ignorance, free of bias with rational thought, the individuals would agree to a society governed by his two principles of justice (Rawls 1971, 53). Individuals would agree to these principles because it would be the only way to ensure a fair initial status quo in society (Rawls 1971, 53). This is important because it allows for justified inequalities later that will be regulated instead of unjust inequalities. No one would want to make things unequal from the start because they have no way of knowing their actual place in society behind the veil (Rawls 1971, 11). For example, if someone suggested that all UCR students get free tuition at the cost of students at other universities footing the bill, it would be within the individuals best interest to disagree because he has no way of knowing if he is a UCR student in the society or one of the other university students that now have to pay more. The idea of the original position is that a just society would be fair and equal, and individuals behind the veil of ignorance would agree on Rawls’ two principles of justice to make it so.

Rawls is a well-known philosopher, for his significant thought experiments and one of the most important philosophical tools is "veil of ignorance”. Where he proposed this principle or lets say method to determine the morality of a particular situation based on ignorance of some things .As he asks us to imagine a dramatic scenario on how a person wants to organize or even would want a society, if the person were placed in what Rawls call it the original position. Within this position the future citizens or people wouldn’t know yet which part they are playing, what kind of position they will occupy, what are their talents within the society or their upcoming society, where they must design their roles and attributes that will be reassigned

Rawls hypotheses describe the veil of ignorance. Because Rawls's lack of knowledge suggests that the hypothesis is a creative device that envisages the inclusion of a society's simple and rational state. Until the company is trained and nobody knows the position or foundation, this unconscious moment, we are talking about the veil of ignorance. If people do not have a reason for what is happening to them right now and they are insignificant at the moment they do not understand the information about themselves. In this way, they should admit that the rules are reasonable and only prone and without special interests.

Thus, we return to the first order intellectual tool: principles of justice. There are many possible principles of justice; however Rawls tests the following two principles of justice in hopes which are theoretically capable of achieving institutional reform. The first principle of justice is that “each person has an equal claim to a fully adequate scheme of equal basic rights and liberties” (5). Moreover, this is the translating of rights into real possibilities to guarantee that one really does have freedom. And this is a fair and concrete value which society does, in theory, guarantees. The second principle of justice is that “social and economic inequalities are to satisfy two conditions: first they are to be attached to positions and offices open to all under conditions of fair equality of opportunity; and second, they are to be the greatest benefit of the least advantaged members of society,” (6). Thus, there is no exclusion of any group.