The veil of ignorance: great thought experiment (via The Hannibal Blog)

On By southwerkIn business ethics, ethics, Philosophy of Business

In this 2009 posting, The Hannibal Blog, discusses (approvingly) Rawls’ concept of the “veil of ignorance.” It’s a good discussion.

James Pilant

The veil of ignorance: great thought experiment What if we could get together to form a new kind of society … and we did not even know who we would be in that society? This is a famous thought experiment, proposed by the Harvard philosopher John Rawls in his 1971 book, Theory of Justice. Jag, of "idiomology" fame, mentioned it in response to my previous post on (Einstein's) thought experiments, and it … Read More

via The Hannibal Blog

One thought on “The veil of ignorance: great thought experiment (via The Hannibal Blog)”

  1. I came to know of John Rawls Theory of Justice only through Amartya Sen’s Idea of Justice which is dedicated to John Rawls. John Rawls obviously kindled the desire of justice to many a Nobel Laureates. Going through Amartya Sen’s book one that attracted most was his quote: “Justice Stephen Breyer has brought out with much force and clarity the importance of paying ‘attention to purpose and consequence’ in interpreting a democratic constitution, emphasizing the role of ‘consequences as an important yardstick to measure a given interpretation’s faithfulness to these democratic purposes.”

    My study is on cost consequence and naturally I appreciated the comment of Stephen Breyer. I really want to meet him and discuss.

    I am yet to gulp the idea of coming out with new jargons such as ‘transcendental theory of justice’ of Amartya Sen in Idea of Justice that many economists indulge in that in my measurement table of intangible never reaches to form a substance. It rovers around the scale of 2 as against the optimum scale of 5 that it stops with communication. Then it goes in for a review by the Nobel Authority to come out with a prize. It is never used and forever stays subtle. It is not the responsibility of the whole world to make it grow but the maker of this idea should propose the steps that would make it happen. For example, if we are trying to form a Humane Society there are practical events that had happened in the historical past that made a Humane Society function. Instead of theoretical exploration of Human Mind we need practical usage of Human Hands.

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