John Rawls

1.“The veil of ignorance”

- is a method of determining the morality of political issues proposed in 1971

- It is based upon the following thought experiment: people making political decisions
imagine that they know nothing about the particular talents, abilities, tastes, social class,
and positions they will have within a social order. When such parties are selecting the
principles for distribution of rights, positions, and resources in the society in which they
will live, this "veil of ignorance" prevents them from knowing who will receive a given
distribution of rights, positions, and resources in that society. For example, for a
proposed society in which 50% of the population is kept in slavery, it follows that on
entering the new society there is a 50% likelihood that the participant would be a slave.
The idea is that parties subject to the veil of ignorance will make choices based upon
moral considerations, since they will not be able to make choices based on their own
self- or class-interest.
- for ex: Imagine it's your birthday and your parents throw a party for you and your friends.
When the time to cut the cake comes, your mother tells you "Now, you can cut the cake
in whatever way you want to; however, you cannot choose the slice that you'll get to
have.". Maybe you'd like a bigger slice of that cake, but since you don't want to risk
getting a small slice, you just decide to cut equal slices for everybody.

https://people.wku.edu/jan.garrett/ethics/johnrawl.htm#meth

2. John Rawls’ principles of justice

The self-interested rational people (the ones that are behind the veil) are not ignorant of

a. the general types of possible situations in which humans can find themselves;
b. general facts about human psychology and "human nature".

Rawls argues that self-interested rational persons behind the veil of ignorance would choose two general
principles of justice to structure society in the real world:

i. Principle of Equal Liberty: Each person has an equal right to the most extensive liberties
compatible with similar liberties for all.
ii. Difference Principle: Social and economic inequalities should be arranged so that they are
both (a) to the greatest benefit of the least advantaged persons
(b) attached to offices and positions open to all under conditions of equality of
opportunity.

(i) is egalitarian, since it distributes extensive liberties equally to all persons.

(iib) is also quite egalitarian, since it distributes opportunities to be considered for offices and positions in
an equal manner.

(iia) is not egalitarian but makes benefit for some (those with greater talents, training, etc.) proportionate
to their contribution toward benefiting the least advantaged persons.

(i)obviously echoes, without exactly duplicating, libertarianism in its commitment to extensive liberties