The Veil of Ignorance
Written by Studio AM.
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Suppose you were asked to design the rules of a society, including its laws and distribution of resources, but with one strange condition. You must choose the rules before knowing who you will be in that society. You might be born wealthy or poor, healthy or sick, in a majority or a minority group. You know you will live under the rules you pick, but not from which position.
This device, developed by the philosopher John Rawls, is called the veil of ignorance. It withholds knowledge of personal position, because favoritism toward that position warps our sense of fairness. Behind the veil, you cannot rig the rules in your own favor, because you do not know which social position will be yours. Accepting poor conditions for the least advantaged becomes a reckless bet if you might occupy that position.
Rawls argued that people in this position would choose equal basic liberties and fair equality of opportunity. He also argued that permitted economic inequalities should benefit the least advantaged as much as possible. These are claims within his theory, not conclusions that every philosopher accepts.
The veil is not a description of how societies are made; no one really chooses from such a position. It is a way to examine proposed rules. When a rule seems just to you, ask whether you would still accept it if you did not yet know which life inside it would be yours.
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Questions
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Question 1 of 4
What is the main idea of the passage?
The answer is A: The veil tests fairness without knowing one's place in society.
The final paragraph asks whether a rule remains acceptable without knowing which position you would hold under it.
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Question 2 of 4
Behind the veil, what is it that you do NOT know?
The answer is B: Which position in society you will occupy
You 'know you will live under the rules you pick, but not from which position.'
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Question 3 of 4
How does withholding knowledge of your social position affect the choice of rules?
The answer is A: It prevents tailoring rules to a particular position known to be yours.
You can still care about your future life, but you cannot design rules to favor a specific social position that you know you occupy.
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Question 4 of 4
What does 'warps' mean in this passage?
The answer is A: bends and distorts
Favoritism can distort a judgment of fairness. Here warps means bends or distorts.
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