John Rawls · Philosophy

Justice as Fairness: Choosing Behind a Veil of Ignorance

Rawls’s founding move - to picture the principles of a just society as those that free and equal people would agree on in an ‘original position,’ behind a ‘veil of ignorance’ that hides their place, class, talents, and beliefs - so that no one can rig the rules in their own favour.

What you'll be able to recall

You learned that Rawls revived the social contract at a new level of abstraction: the ‘original position’ is a hypothetical choosing situation, and the ‘veil of ignorance’ strips the parties of all knowledge of their own place, so the principles they agree on cannot be tailored to anyone’…

Leads to Immanuel Kant.

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