Societal practice
The subject matter of John Rawl's theory is societal practice and institutions. Some social institutions can provoke envy and resentment. Others can foster alienation and exploitation. Is there a way of organizing society that can keep these problems within livable limits? Can society be organized around fair principles of cooperation in a way people would stably accept?
Rawl's suggestion is, in effect, that we should put all our effort into seeing that the rules of the game are fair. Once society has been organized around a set of fair rules, people can set about freely playing the game without interference.
Recognizing social institutions distort our views (by sometimes generating envy, resentment, alienation or false consciousness) and bias matters in their own favor (by indoctrinating and habituating those who grow up under them).
What principles of social justice would be chosen by parties thoroughly knowledgable about human affairs, in general, but wholly deprived- by the veil of ignorance- of information about the particular person they represent? Would rational parties behind a veil of ignorance choose average utilitarianism? Economist John Harsanyi argues they would because it would be rational for parties lacking any other information to maximize their expectation of well-being. Since they do not know who they will be, they will want to maximize the average level of well-being in society.
The veil deprives the parties of any knowledge of the values- the conception of the good- of the person into whose shoes they are to imagine stepping into. The veil of ignorance, however, prevents the parties from knowing anything particular about the preferences, likes or dislikes, committments or aversions of those persons. They also know nothing particular about the society for which they are choosing.
Rawls suggests we should ascribe to them a 'thinner' or less controversial set of committments. The core of which, he calls, 'primary' goods, rights, liberties, opportunities, income, wealth and the social bases of self-respect.
John Rawls
Political philosopher
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