The Original Position and Veil of Ignorance

 Rawl develop two important concept of justice as fairness, which is the original position and veil
of ignorance
 In Rawls’s theory the original position plays the same role that the “state of nature” does in the
social contract tradition of Thomas Hobbes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and John Locke.
 The original position is a hypothetical situation, this is a thought experiment in which the parties
select principles that will determine the basic structure of the society they will live in.

(Ang original position daw ay isang hypothetical situation which means bumabase or nagiisip ng
isang posible ideas na makaka-solve ng isang bagay, syempre hindi isang idea ang gingawa nila
kundi marami dahil dito they will select a good structure of idea na makaka determine ng
problem sa isang situation.)

 In the original position, you are asked to consider which principles you would select for the basic
structure of society, but you must select as if you had no knowledge ahead of time what position
you would end up having in that society. 
 This choice is made from behind a veil of ignorance, which would deprive participants of
information about their particular characteristics: his or her ethnicity, social status, gender and,
crucially, their conception of the good.
( sa original position papapiliin ka kung anong basic structure of society ang gusto mo
mapabilang, pero dapat mamili ka na parang you don’t any idea of what kind of a society do you
live in)

 The ‘original position’ was defined as a pre-political abstraction from reality in which a group of
people who know nothing about themselves, such as their age, gender, or even names
 The original position is a hypothetical situation in which we have no knowledge of our place in
society.
 In the original position, the parties select principles that will determine the basic structure of the
society they will live in.
 In the original position, individuals will not choose those principles of justice that benefit society
as a whole—as in Utilitarianism; rather, they will choose those principles that benefit them
personally
 What is Veil of ignorance
 Rawls’s idea that people will develop fair principles of distribution only if they are ignorant of
their position in society, so in order to get objective judgements, the decision makers must not
know how the decision would affect him or her. Keeps us from identifying from our own
personal circumstances.Then, we can more objectively consider how societies operate.
 The purpose of the “veil of ignorance” in Rawls’s thought experiment is to illustrate what social
principles people in society would chose if they had a clear indication of all of the consequences
of all of their choices.
The ‘Original Position’ and ‘Vail of Ignorance’

 Rawl develop two important concept of justice as fairness, which is the original position and veil
of ignorance
Original Position

 In Rawls’s theory the original position plays the same role that the “state of nature” does in the
social contract tradition of Thomas Hobbes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and John Locke.
(so the theory of rawls of state of nature is same with thomas hobbes, jean Jacques Rousseau and
john locke, state of nature means as a state of total freedom and equality, bound by the law of
nature.)

 The original position is a hypothetical situation, this is a thought experiment in which the parties
select principles that will determine the basic structure of the society they will live in.
 It was also defined as a pre-political abstraction from reality in which a group of people who
know nothing about themselves, such as their age, gender, or even names.
(So the original position is a hypothetical situation which means bumabase sa mga possible ideas
na nagagawa ng isip natin, for example pag gumagawa tayo isang bagay na walang
kasiguraduhan kung ito ba ay may positive or negative effect. So sinasabi dito si John Rawl’s ang
original position daw ay papapiliin ang isang tao dito kung saang parte sya ng society
napapabilang pero gagamitan natin ito ng thought experiment which is the hypothetical situation,
kung saan walang alam ang tao sa kung anong meron sya, pagiisipan nya muna kung muna kung
saanng parte sya ng society.)

 It’s justice as fairness

(Dito palang sa original position makikita ang sinasabi na fairness dahil nga it makes the person
ignorant, walang alam ang isang tao kung anong meron sya, hindi nya alam kung anong age,
gender or even his/her name, so it means at the first place, lahat ng tao ay may equality dahil they
don’t have any idea about themselves. lahat tayo ay papipiliin muna kung saang parte tayo ng
mapapabilang para ma-determine ang position mo sa Loob ng society)

In Rawls’s theory the original position plays the same role that the “state of nature” does in the social
contract tradition of Thomas Hobbes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and John Locke.
The original position is a hypothetical situation, this is a thought experiment in which the parties select
principles that will determine the basic structure of the society they will live in.

It was also defined as a pre-political abstraction from reality in which a group of people who know
nothing about themselves, such as their age, gender, or even names.
It’s justice as fairness