The Veil of Ignorance

History crosses the discipline of Political Science in the figure of John Rawls (1921-2002), arguably the most important American political philosopher of the 20th century. His book, _A Theory of Justice_, has ideas about how to structure society which have been of immeasurable importance far outside the towers of academia, ideas worth knowing about.

Rawls thought a lot about the degree to which a society could preserve both liberty and equality — both of these are ideals of a democratic form of government, but they can be in opposition. If I have the freedom to set up a corporation that pollutes other people’s environment, I create an inequality. If I ban a business owner from charging for her products, that interferes with her freedom.

His solution was expressed in the thought experiment known as “the Original Position”: you can see it illustrated above. To design the best society, says Rawls, you start from the goal of the “maximin” which is to allow social and economic inequalities so that “they are to be of the greatest benefit to the least advantaged members of society”.

So you can make wealth, but not if it means causing the poorest members of a group to have a bad quality of life. Same with other things that are basic to happiness, like free speech, fair legal treatment, opportunities, and self-respect.

You might imagine such a society best if you take the Original Position behind the “Veil of Ignorance”: here, you imagine you get to design any society you want, but you don’t know who you will be in that society — you might end up any gender, race, physical ability, religion, or social class. Would you be content if you ended up in any of those positions? The goal of the Veil of Ignorance is to produce a fair and egalitarian society.