Atomic Phil: The Veil of Ignorance

ATOMIC THEORY OF THE WEEK: RAWLS' VEIL OF IGNORANCE

Rawl’s Veil of Ignorance says that in designing a just society, individuals should make decisions without knowing their own position within that society. By suspending knowledge of one's own race, gender, socioeconomic status, and other characteristics, individuals can create fair principles that everyone would agree to from behind this "veil."

Strategies for Success:

Employ Rawls' Veil of Ignorance as a tool in debates about social justice and fairness. It works well with a structural violence FW as a criterion. It serves as a compelling framework to assess policies, laws, and societal structures impartially. Craft arguments that emphasize the importance of considering everyone's interests equally and highlight the necessity of minimizing inequality and maximizing opportunities for the least advantaged.

Brief arguments for/against Rawls' Veil of Ignorance:

For:

- Promotes fairness: By ensuring decisions are made impartially, Rawls' Veil of Ignorance creates a more just society where everyone's interests are considered equally.

- Incentivizes Rational Choice for Stability: Under the veil, individuals would rationally choose principles that guarantee their own future well-being within a stable and just society. This aligns individual interests with collective good, potentially promoting long-term cooperation and preventing social unrest.

Against:

- Impractical in implementation: The marginalization suffered by some groups cannot be articulated in terms of Rawlsian theory. Rawlsian equality of people is tantamount to homogenization rather than recognition.

- Not action-guiding: Rawlsian ideal theory can’t account for correcting injustice, only whether something is unjust. Ideal theory enables you to say when a society is unjust, but it does not tell you what to do to correct that injustice.

Apply Rawls' Veil of Ignorance as a framework to assess the justice and fairness of different social structures, laws, and customs. We can work to create a society that is more inclusive and egalitarian by taking into account values that would be accepted by all in an ignorant state.