John Rawls Veil Of Ignorance Analysis

John Rawls puts forth a political philosophy arguing for the concept of justice as fairness in a book called A Theory of Justice. Rawls argues that a just political constitution is removed from the personal interest of individuals. Rawls says that the principles of a just political constitution should be made behind a veil of ignorance, whereby those who draft the constitution “… do not know [their] economic or political situation, or the level of civilization and culture [they] [have] been able to achieve” in their society. (Rawls, 1971) The contents of a political constitution made from behind this veil will in turn be removed from the interests of individuals and more accurately reflect values that are of interest to all people. Rawls takes his theory of political philosophy a step further. Rawls states that if there is a veil of ignorance when a political constitution is drafted that a set of rights beneficial to all people will inevitably be part of that constitution. Rawls’s first principle dictates that a just political constitution does indeed include this set of universally beneficial rights. By using the veil of ignorance, Rawls removes the personal interest of the constitutional drafters and forces them to …show more content…
If the drafters of the Constitution had been more stubborn about creating principles that were fair, then there would have been no agreement and no ratification because there would be no incentive to do so. It was better for the drafters of the United States Constitution to be practical and create an imperfect constitution that state delegates would agree to ratify than to try and create a constitution that was the most fair and beneficial to all people at all times that would never be