What is the original position according to Rawls quizlet?

What is the original position according to Rawls quizlet?

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.

What is the Rawlsian approach?

The approach is based on the Rawlsian concept of Wide Reflective Equilibrium (WRE) in which people’s considered judgments on a case are reflectively weighed against moral principles and background theories, ideally leading to a state of equilibrium.

What is the original position of Rawls?

Nature of the concept Rawls specifies that the parties in the original position are concerned only with citizens’ share of what he calls primary social goods, which include basic rights as well as economic and social advantages.

What is the original position and the veil of ignorance quizlet?

The “veil of ignorance” is central to the hypothetical situation Rawls calls the “original position.” In the original position, individuals are behind—or covered by—the veil of ignorance so that they do not know what social position or status they hold in society.

What is Rawls veil of ignorance?

Rawls suggests that you imagine yourself in an original position behind a veil of ignorance. Behind this veil, you know nothing of yourself and your natural abilities, or your position in society. You know nothing of your sex, race, nationality, or individual tastes.

What is a theory that bases morality on the consequences of actions?

Consequentialism is a class of normative, teleological ethical theories that holds that the consequences of one’s conduct are the ultimate basis for judgment about the rightness or wrongness of that conduct.

What is Rawls veil of ignorance quizlet?

What is the 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.

What is the purpose of Rawls veil of ignorance?

Its purpose is to explore ideas about justice, morality, equality, and social status in a structured manner. The Veil of Ignorance, a component of social contract theory, allows us to test ideas for fairness. Behind the Veil of Ignorance, no one knows who they are.

What does Rawls mean by the original position?

Rawls’s idea of the original position, as initially conceived, is his account of the moral point of view with regard to matters of justice. The original position is a hypothetical perspective that we can adopt in our moral reasoning about the most basic principles of social and political justice.

Can We return to Rawls’ original position on social justice?

To be clear, Rawls does not think we can actually return to this original position, or even that it ever existed. It is a purely hypothetical idea: our job in thinking about justice is to imagine that we are designing a society from scratch. The idea is that social justice will be whatever reasonable people would agree to in such a situation.

How can we challenge Rawls’s assumptions?

We have already noted that Rawls explicitly makes several assumptions that shape the nature of the discussion behind the Veil of Ignorance, and the outcomes that are likely to come out of it. However, one might challenge Rawls by disputing the fairness or intuitiveness of one or more of his assumptions.

What is Rawls’s original position on ignorance?

The original position is an elegant thought experiment. In effect, Rawls invites his readers to imagine that they are temporarily ignorant about certain things, including important facts about themselves, such as how well off they are, whether or not they are especially talented, and what their core personal values – religious or otherwise – are.