The Global Applicability Challenge of John Rawl's Veil of Ignorance
March 22, 2021
Student: Jamie Guterman Major: Psychology
"This essay project is a criticism of John Rawls’s Veil of Ignorance experiment. Rawls proposed that completely equal societies must come from a shared conception of justice. He described that parties can come to this shared conception of justice by receding behind a ‘veil of ignorance' in which all individuals are unaware of any identifying factors of themselves or others. This neutral position would, in theory, take away the self-interested bargaining power of individuals and create the most equal society possible. Rawls essentially argues that legislative and societal decisions must be made in a vacuum. This paper argues that this is an impractical solution to global inequality because, in many non-Western societies, factors such as religion play an essential role in governmental and societal frameworks. I write about how, in Muslim countries, Islamic law and tradition are essential in the way the state governs and Rawls is asking these nations to give up a central pillar of their identity and government- something that will not stand up to the test of practicality. Our identities are something we will not give up easily and Rawls fails to consider the public role that religion has in many countries. My paper engages scholarship from Freedom and Religion by employing ethical theories such as Jonathan Haidt’s Moral Foundations pillars to explain my argument. I also utilize Islamic traditions, statehood, and history that I learned through my HEP class to strengthen my argument."
"Rawls's optimistically Euro-centric response to inequity excludes and decidedly ignores the reality of religion in the public sphere across the globe." - Jamie Guterman
Presentation Website
Further Reading
- John Rawl's Veil of Ignorance Explained from Ethics Unwrapped: https://ethicsunwrapped.utexas.edu/glossary/veil-of-ignorance
- The World's Muslims: Religion, Politics, and Society from Pew Research Center: https://www.pewforum.org/2013/04/30/the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-overview/
- Muslim Views on Morality: https://www.pewforum.org/2013/04/30/the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-morality/
- Moral Foundations Theory: https://moralfoundations.org/