The Veil of Ignorance Essay
The “Veil of Ignorance” is a thought experiment and moral concept introduced by the philosopher John Rawls in his seminal work, “A Theory of Justice” (1971). This concept serves as a foundation for understanding and developing principles of justice in society. The idea behind the Veil of Ignorance is to create a fair and just society by making decisions without knowledge of one’s own personal circumstances.
The Veil of Ignorance
The veil of ignorance is supposed to test the morality of certain issues within society. This concept assumes that social roles were to be redistributed and re-fashioned. Thus a person behind this veil of ignorance does not know which role they will be re-assigned.
When this is the case a person will consider the morality of the issue at stake and make a better choice for the less-privileged since no one wants to be assigned the role the underprivileged undertook. Thus according to Rawls, those people in the original position would choose some kind of Maximin matrix that would improve the welfare of the least privileged in the society.
Rawls portrays justice as an issue of fairness, emphasizing the distribution of resources as well as allowing an unequal distribution whereby only the weakest members of society benefit from the inequality.
According to him, he uses this to justify the limitation of unjust resources hence redistributing so as to improve the situation of the less fortunate. Rawls believes that inequality should leave the disadvantaged better off than before. He assumes that equality is desirable and therefore puts the burden of justification upon individuals who support inequality.
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