The veil of ignorance
Design a society without knowing which person in it you will be, and watch what changes.
Imagine you are asked to write the rules of a society: its laws, schools, taxes and healthcare. There is one condition. You will be born into it, but you will not know who you will be: rich or poor, healthy or ill, clever or not, any religion, any gender.
This is the veil of ignorance, a thought experiment from the philosopher John Rawls in A Theory of Justice (1971). The place behind the veil is his original position.
What the veil does
Normally we argue for rules that suit our own situation. The veil removes that bias. Not knowing where you will land, you have a reason to want a system that is fair to everyone, because you might be anyone.
Rawls argued that people there would choose equal basic liberties, and would accept inequalities only if they work to the benefit of the least advantaged. It is a bit like cutting a cake when you will not know which slice is yours: you cut evenly.
Not only Rawls
The economist John Harsanyi used a similar equal-chance idea in the 1950s. The two reached different conclusions. Harsanyi imagined being equally likely to be any person and concluded that average welfare should be maximised, whereas Rawls’s deeper veil led to protecting the worst-off. So the device is not a machine that gives one answer.
The arguments
Philosophers still disagree. Would real people be that cautious about the risk of ending up poor, or would some gamble? Does hiding everything about yourself leave anyone with views at all? These are live debates, so it is fairest to describe the veil as a test, not a proof.
Using it at dinner
You do not need the full theory. When a rule, a policy or a family arrangement is argued about, ask: would I still defend this if I did not know which person in the story I would be? It is a gentle, friendly question, and it often shifts a conversation from winning to understanding.
Bring it up
“A fair test for any rule: would you still pick it if you didn’t know which person in the story you’d turn out to be?”
Follow the thread
- RelatedChesterton’s fence: ask why it’s there before you tear it down Both are mental models for judging rules: one asks why a rule exists, the other asks whether it is fair to everyone it affects.
- In contrastThe cobra effect: when rewards backfire The veil asks about fairness of design; the cobra effect warns that even well-meant design can backfire.
- Related“An eye for an eye” was a step forward An ancient law code that openly ranked people by class, which is exactly what the veil asks us to question.
