A philosophy webcomic about the inevitable anguish of living a brief life in an absurd world. Also Jokes

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The Forced Veil of Ignorance



What's the alternate explantion? American's just suddenly got non-stupid? No, it has to be some kind of super philosopher scenario.

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John Rawls's "veil of ignorance" thought experiment asks us to try to design a society without knowing who we would be in that society. We wouldn't know our race or religion, or our ideas or social position, or even our own attributes. This would allow us to create a just and fair society, and he thinks most people would create a similar sort of society. For example, society wouldn't discriminate against any group, since no one would want to risk being part of a group that can't live a good life. Similarly, everyone would favor policies that help the "least advantaged". For example, if 10% of the population is very poor, everyone would try to lift them up before helping the 1% who are rich already get richer, because you have a much higher chance of being part of the poor group, and helping them makes a much bigger difference in their lives than making a rich guy even richer.

Rawls's ideas are somewhat foundational to American left-liberal thought. Rawls doesn't really talk about how to achieve these changes, aside from, I guess, everyone just reading Rawls and agreeing with him. If we could somehow force everyone to go into the Veil of Ignorance, even for just a bit, it does seem like they might not vote like idiots every single time.

Philosophers in this comic: John Rawls
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