Today I want to discuss the Veil of Ignorance thought experiment proposed by John Rawls. The Veil of Ignorance serves to explore the idea of justice and equality by helping remove one’s personal biases and inclinations from the larger equation. The Veil of Ignorance encourages us to imagine the most equitable and just society that we can and in doing so I believe it encourages compassion and empathy for others around us. So, what does the Veil of Ignorance actually entail?
The Veil of Ignorance: how To Veil
Imagine that your mind is separated from your body and that you have lost your primary memories about who you are, where you live, or anything else about you. You are a purely neutral observer who has been tasked with designing a society and who has full control over social, political and economic policies for your society. While you are designing the society you do not know if you are terminally ill, elderly, your gender, your race, your socioeconomic status, or your sexuality but when you return from behind the veil of ignorance you will be forced to live with any of the design decisions that you made while anonymous.
“The principles of justice are chosen behind a veil of ignorance. Each person possesses and inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override.”
John Rawls
John Rawls asks what are the rational guiding principles that one would use to give themselves the best possible life regardless of any of their traits or characteristics and comes to two primary conclusions, the liberty principle and the difference principle. I will go into more detail on both below but at its core both principles can serve as guides to making a more equitable and just society.
The Liberty Principle
The Liberty Principle states that we have the right to maximize basic liberty for everyone up until the point at which additional liberty would be forced to remove liberty from a different group. In function, be as free as you can be without impacting any else.
“Each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive basic liberty compatible with a similar liberty for others.”
John Rawls
Case Study: An unnamed religious organization has a deeply held principle of belief that people may only be married if they are of opposite genders. That religious organization is seeking to make gay marriage illegal because their religious beliefs state that it is immoral.
The Liberty Principle would encourage us to stand against the religious organizations attempts to minimize the liberty of the gay members of their community. They have the ability to believe whatever they want, but they do not have the ability to remove the rights of others based on those religious beliefs.
The Difference Principle
The Difference Principle states any inequality that is permitted in society should only be permitted on the basis that it benefits the least favored in society. In order for inequality to be justified it must be to the benefit of the worst off rather than to the benefit of the powerful.
“While the distribution of wealth and income need not be equal, it must be to everyone’s advantage, and at the same time, positions of authority and offices of command must be accessible to all.”
John Rawls
Case Study: A political party is establishing their ideal system of taxation and considering a universal percentage to tax all people at regardless of wealth. What could be more fair than just treating everyone the same after all.
So, does a system that recommends equal treatment meet the qualifications of the Difference principle? In this case, no. The difference principle allows for disparities in wealth and income or treatment, but only when they are to everyone’s advantage. It may be equal to have the wealthiest and the poorest have the same tax rate, however it is not the fairest and anyone within the Veil of Ignorance would advocate for a more common sense equitable tax policy.
Who Needs Philosophy Anyways!
I like to review and imagine the Veil of Ignorance not because its a realistic method to actually build a society but because it can guide my thoughts towards the most equitable solutions we have available. The Veil requests a level of compassion for our community members, those with opposing beliefs, and for people who do not look like ourselves. America was founded on principles of liberty, equality and freedom and although at its founding those values were restricted to a small subset of the population, the growth and expansion of those values to non-landowners, people of color, women, member of the LGBTQ communities, and those with disabilities is what America is all about.
I encourage you to take a few minutes and think through your most controversial political opinions and ask yourself, does this follow the Liberty and Difference Principles or is this policy encouraging inequalities or the reduction of liberty for others, you may be surprised with what you find.
