Posted: March 23rd, 2023

The Veil of Ignorance

According to John Rawl, the “Veil of Ignorance” is essential for law designers as it disregards the social position that a person will occupy afterward (Rawls 503). Significantly, the Rawlsian theory believes that the veil of ignorance leads to a social democratic, progressive, and egalitarian society. Evidently, Rawl substantiates that if designers of law are behind a veil of ignorance, then they ensure to construct powerful social welfares and redistribution policies as they could affect them in different ways. Concisely, Rawl argues that the veil of ignorance is highly applicable in all societal institutions, including the justice sector. Therefore, he advocates that rational lawmakers should ensure that they uphold the two principles of justice, which are practically essential within any public sector (Rawls 509). First, Rawl establishes that if law designers are behind a veil of ignorance, they should frame policies that uphold equal liberty for all. Considerably, equal justice ensures that every person under the law enjoys all kinds of privileges adored by all individuals despite their social classes. Notably, equal liberty in fairness fully embraces egalitarianism considering that extensive freedom is distributed equally to all persons.

Secondly, Rawl avers that designers hidden behind the veil of ignorance will uphold the principle of difference as expected (Rawls 509). Subsequently, variance translates to inequality consideration in all social-economic platforms. Therefore, the least advantaged people in society benefit the greatest from the social and economic incentives within a state. In addition, with an appropriately upheld principle of equality of opportunity, top positions and jobs are kept open for all people within society (Rawls 510). Moreover, life becomes better for the least advantaged whenever their standards of living are raised to match the extents of their life conditions. In addition, privileged positions are not limited to individuals due to discrimination on irrelevant criteria. Nonetheless, the principle of difference also upholds the ideology of giving power to the individuals who meet certain conditions.

Works Cited

Rawls, John. A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1999. Print.