Veil of Ignorance | Ethics Defined

[@shavindersingh3657]

Excellent explanation, I appreciate.

[@justgamingn]

I have one question. How can one just pretend to be behind a veil of ignorance? Undoubtebly one will take into consideration (conscious or unconcious) the current state of affairs in the particular society for example. You can't just imagine that away. Or am I missing something here?

[@ElodieHiras]

If tomorrow, you died, but would be reborn... Somewhere. You don't know if you'll be a child of a member of the ruling class, or of a member of the lower class. Born in rural or urban area. You don't know if you'd be born strong or weak, healthy or with a health condition, you don't know which ethnicity or even sex you'll be born as, or whom you'd rather bang this time around. You just know (for example) your odds of being born a noble are "how many nobles are born" divided by "how many people are born". Where would you rather be reincarnated if you had no clue as to whom you'd be reincarnated as? Which society would you rather be reborn in? Would you rather reincarnate in Japan, Russia, China, North Korea, South Africa, Italy, or the US of A?

[@siddharthsingh9043]

I think it's more about a personal ignorance where you have to imagine a society where everyone starts at the same level. This doesn't necessarily talk about the economic strength of the individuals, but considers everyone to be on the same page and from there, imagining a society where this same liberty and equality in natural state (social contract theories) are further enhanced so as to make a just society.

[@hadiesay]

I think it's more about evaluating the ideal, and not pretending you aren't who you are. If you're a billionaire today you might want zero tax, but what argument could you make that would convince a poor voter to support it? If you're poor, could you plausibly convince a billionaire to give away all their money? No in both cases. But if you're forced to come up with a position that would be fair to both, an argument that rich and poor could look at and say 'that's fair, that makes sense', then it's very possibly a good thing for society and would at least garner wide support. And you have the advantage of other people critiquing your ideas... YOU may be unconsciously biased, but that bias will become all too visible when other people look at the reasoning.

[@ntokozosibanyoni1421]

Here's an example: Its your birthday today and your parents throw you a party. Then comes the time to cut the cake for everybody in the party. Roughly, the cake is given to you and your parents tell you, "You can cut the cake into as many slices as you want & you can alternate the size of each slice as you so wish, but you DON'T KNOW which slice you're gonna get". Now tell me what you would do in that situation to ensure you get a reasonably sized slice? That's the veil of ignorance. If you can't choose how rich the family you're born into is (i.e. decide which slice ti get from the cake) then you're more likely to favour policies which further fairness and equality as furthest as possible (i.e. cut the cake into equal slices so you guarantee yourself a slice to eat). I don't kno, maybe this is still too dense, but I hope you get it now.

[@simranpreetkaurlamba8204]

​@@ntokozosibanyoni1421the best explanation 👌 👏

[@declanbuckley9602]

Brilliant explanation, thumb up

[@yexin4093]

litteraly took the first 20 seconds for me to understand what 90 minutes of my ethics course struggled to do

[@simranpreetkaurlamba8204]

Now thats some America's kind of explanation 🇺🇸. Understandable, have a great day 👍

[@Chriliman]

Why do you need a “vail of ignorance”? Why not both know your own situation and the situation of others and determine what’s fair from that?

[@christopherchris8375]

Vail of education kindergarten 🎥

[@kyleramsey8897]

This is not at all my understanding of the Rawls principle.

[@JasonMomos]

Can you explain it in your own words?

[@kewlbeone5949]

The two principles absurdly conflict. And Rawls is far more a collectivist not a believer in Liberty.

[@Twisttheawesome]

"Trying not to think about myself for one single minute? What is this, TOTALITARIANISM?!"

[@JamesR1986]

Pro tip, government is not the only impairment to liberty. In fact, I'd argue that in a healthy capitalist/democratic system poverty, sickness, and natural ability (or lack thereof) are greater impediments to liberty then government is.

[@kewlbeone5949]

@@JamesR1986 Pro-tip?. The government is the only impediment to liberty.