Recall that Hobbes and Locke and Rousseau each described a state of nature. The state of nature was just an idea; nobody was saying that humans ever were actually in the state of nature. Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau each described how people could leave a state of nature by a hypothetical social contract. Instead of a state of nature, Rawls has what he calls the original position.
The Veil of Ignorance
Rawls recognizes that persons act on self-interest. Rawls thinks that a person can be rational about their self-interest. This means that
a person has a plan to get what they want out of life, that
a person knows what they need to make their plan work and that
a person mostly sticks to their plan throughout their lives, even if they are never completely successful. If a person like that started in the original position, Rawls figures that they would simply design a society which would help them with their own personal plan, and to hell with everybody else. According to Rawls, this would not result in a just society. To get around this problem, Rawls has invented the veil of ignorance, which applies to persons in the original position while they are supposed to be figuring out the best social contract. The key point is that, in the veil of ignorance, a person does not know who they are in the real world! That is,
a person does not know their class position or social status,
a person does not know their natural talents, abilities, intelligence or strength, and
a person does not know what their plan for a good life is. These things that a person does not know in the veil of ignorance are things that cannot be controlled by the social contract for the design of the society, so there is no point discussing how these things will get distributed among the persons. The design of society does, however, determine what happens to persons and how a lot of other things, like education, health care, welfare and job opportunities, will get distributed among the persons in society. The idea is that persons in the veil of ignorance will end up designing a society that will be fair to everyone because they don't want to risk ending up in an intolerable position. Peter Jedicke's home page
a person has a plan to get what they want out of life, that
a person knows what they need to make their plan work and that
a person mostly sticks to their plan throughout their lives, even if they are never completely successful. If a person like that started in the original position, Rawls figures that they would simply design a society which would help them with their own personal plan, and to hell with everybody else. According to Rawls, this would not result in a just society. To get around this problem, Rawls has invented the veil of ignorance, which applies to persons in the original position while they are supposed to be figuring out the best social contract. The key point is that, in the veil of ignorance, a person does not know who they are in the real world! That is,
a person does not know their class position or social status,
a person does not know their natural talents, abilities, intelligence or strength, and
a person does not know what their plan for a good life is. These things that a person does not know in the veil of ignorance are things that cannot be controlled by the social contract for the design of the society, so there is no point discussing how these things will get distributed among the persons. The design of society does, however, determine what happens to persons and how a lot of other things, like education, health care, welfare and job opportunities, will get distributed among the persons in society. The idea is that persons in the veil of ignorance will end up designing a society that will be fair to everyone because they don't want to risk ending up in an intolerable position. Peter Jedicke's home page
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