John Rawls's veil of ignorance is one of the most productive thought experiments in political philosophy: imagine designing the basic structures of a society without knowing your place in it — your race, class, gender, talent, or luck. Most people, reasoning from behind this veil, would choose principles that protect the worst-off position, because they might occupy it. Rawls's two principles — equal basic liberties for all and inequalities permitted only when they benefit the least advantaged — provide a rigorous liberal framework for social justice that remains one of the most influential and most contested in contemporary political philosophy.
Juana