veil of ignorance

Garment imagined by John Rawls (1921-2002) in his Theory of Justice (1971) as a mental device to enable individuals to formulate a standard of justice whilst remaining ignorant of their place in or value to their society. Rawls's social contract is that which he argues rational individuals would agree to if they were each placed behind a veil of ignorance. The veil permits them to know ‘the general facts of human society’ such as ‘political affairs and the principles of economic theory… whatever general facts affect the choice of the principles of justice’. It prevents them from knowing any particular facts about themselves: ‘no one knows his place in society, his class position or social status…his fortune in the distribution of natural assets and abilities, his intelligence and strength… his conception of the good…his aversion to risk or liability to optimism or pessimism.’ Rawls argues that such people would agree on his principles of justice, including the controversial difference principle. Critics of Rawls argue: (1) that people behind the veil of ignorance would not in fact choose the rules Rawls says they would as being just; and (2) that even if they did, that is no independent argument for the rightness of such rules. This latter point echoes a classic attack on social contract theory by Hume.

In the work of Rawls, the metaphorical description of the barrier against using special concerns in order to assess principles of justice. The veil of ignorance defines the original position. It is as if the parties have to contract into basic social structures, defining for example the liberties that their society will allow, and the economic structure it will recognize, but not knowing which role in the society they themselves will be allocated. Only if a social system can rationally be chosen or contracted into from this position, does it satisfy the constraints on justice. See also difference principle.