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The principles of justice are chosen behind a veil of ignorance.

John Rawls

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John Rawls
Age: 81 †
Born: 1921
Born: February 21
Died: 2002
Died: November 24
Pedagogue
Philosopher
Political Scientist
University Teacher
Baltimore
Maryland
Rawls
John Bordley Rawls
Veils
Chosen
Ignorance
Behinds
Behind
Principles
Justice
Veil

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The fairest rules are those to which everyone would agree if they did not know how much power they would have.
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Public reason arguments can be good or bad just like other arguments.
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Citizens can have their own grounding in their comprehensive doctrines, whatever they happen to be.
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An intolerant sect has no right to complain when it is denied an equal liberty... A person's right to complain is limited to principles he acknowledges himself.
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When the basic structure of society is publicly known to satisfy its principles for an extended period of time, those subject to these arrangements tend to develop a desire to act in accordance with these principles and to do their part in institutions which exemplify them
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We must choose for others as we have reason to believe they would choose for themselves if they were at the age of reason and deciding rationally.
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If you compare the United States with Europe, my view is that what happened in Europe is that the church became deeply distrusted by people, because it sided with the monarchs. It instituted the Inquisition and became part of the repressive state apparatus. That never happened here. We don't have that history.
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The idea of public reason has to do with how questions should be decided, but it doesn't tell you what are the good reasons or correct decisions.
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Liberal constitutional democracy is supposed to ensure that each citizen is free and equal and protected by basic rights and liberties.
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Many of our most serious conflicts are conflicts within ourselves. Those who suppose their judgements are always consistent are unreflective or dogmatic.
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The question is, we have a particular problem. How many religions are there in the United States? How are they going to get on together? One way, which has been the usual way historically, is to fight it out, as in France in the sixteenth century. That's a possibility.
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A scheme is unjust when the higher expectations, one or more of them, are excessive. If these expectations were decreased, the situation of the less favored would be improved.
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There are infinitely many variations of the initial situation and therefore no doubt indefinitely many theorems of moral geometry.
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The strength of the claims of formal justice, of obedience to system, clearly depend upon the substantive justice of institutions and the possibilities of their reform.
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A political conception covers the right to vote, the political virtues, and the good of political life, but it doesn't intend to cover anything else.
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An injustice is tolerable only when it is necessary to avoid an even greater injustice.
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Clearly when the liberties are left unrestricted they collide with one another.
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I live in a country where 90 or 95 percent of the people profess to be religious, and maybe they are religious, though my experience of religion suggests that very few people are actually religious in more than a conventional sense.
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No one deserves his greater natural capacity nor merits a more favorable starting place in society.
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The fault of the utilitarian doctrine is that it mistakes impersonality for impartiality.
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