A thought experiment introduced by John Rawls in A Theory of Justice (1971) as a device for identifying fair principles of justice for a society's basic institutions. Rawls imagines reasoners in an original position choosing the rules that will govern their society from behind a veil of ignorance that hides from each of them their own place in that society: their class, race, sex, natural talents, and even their particular conception of what makes a life good. Denied that knowledge, Rawls argued, self-interest can no longer bias the choice toward an arrangement that happens to favor the chooser, so the principles selected under the veil, equal basic liberties for all, and social and economic inequalities arranged to benefit society's least advantaged members, can be defended as genuinely fair rather than as a rationalization for whoever happens to hold power.
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Source Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Source Veil of Ignorance (Wikipedia)
Source Veil of Ignorance (Wikipedia)
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1. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Stanford University, Center for the Study of Language and Informations.v. John Rawls
The veil of ignorance deprives the parties of all facts about citizens that are irrelevant to the choice of principles of justice
- Associated With: A Theory of Justice
View the Source Veil of Ignorance (Wikipedia)
WikipediaAssociated With: Thomas Hobbes, Body text
In Rawls's theory the original position plays the same role as the 'state of nature' does in the social contract tradition of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke.
Associated With: John Locke, Body text
In Rawls's theory the original position plays the same role as the 'state of nature' does in the social contract tradition of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke.
View the Source Frequently Asked Questions
What is the veil of ignorance?
A thought experiment from John Rawls in which reasoners choose the rules of their society without knowing their own place in it, so self-interest cannot bias the choice.
The veil of ignorance is a thought experiment John Rawls introduced in A Theory of Justice (1971). Reasoners in an original position choose the principles that will govern their society while a veil of ignorance hides from each of them their own place in that society: their class, race, sex, natural talents, and even their own idea of what makes a life good. Denied that knowledge, self-interest can no longer bias the choice toward an arrangement that happens to favor the chooser. Rawls argued the principles selected under the veil, equal basic liberties for all, and social and economic inequalities arranged to benefit society's least advantaged members, can be defended as genuinely fair rather than as a rationalization for whoever holds power.
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