Justice_ What's the Right Thing to Do_ - Michael Sandel [67]
Now consider a thought experiment: Suppose that when we gather to choose the principles, we don’t know where we will wind up in society. Imagine that we choose behind a “veil of ignorance” that temporarily prevents us from knowing anything about who in particular we are. We don’t know our class or gender, our race or ethnicity, our political opinions or religious convictions. Nor do we know our advantages and disadvantages—whether we are healthy or frail, highly educated or a high-school dropout, born to a supportive family or a broken one. If no one knew any of these things, we would choose, in effect, from an original position of equality. Since no one would have a superior bargaining position, the principles we would agree to would be just.
This is Rawls’s idea of the social contract—a hypothetical agreement in an original position of equality. Rawls invites us to ask what principles we—as rational, self-interested persons—would choose if we found ourselves in that position. He doesn’t assume that we are all motivated by self-interest in real life; only that we set aside our moral and religious convictions for purposes of the thought experiment. What principles would we choose?
First of all, he reasons, we would not choose utilitarianism. Behind the veil of ignorance, each of us would think, “For all I know, I might wind up being a member of an oppressed minority.” And no one would want to risk being the Christian thrown to the lions for the pleasure of the crowd. Nor would we choose a purely laissez-faire, libertarian principle that would give people a right to keep all the money they made in a market economy. “I might wind up being Bill Gates,” each person would reason, “but then again, I might turn out to be a homeless person. So I’d better avoid a system that could leave me destitute and without help.”
Rawls believes that two principles of justice would emerge from the hypothetical contract. The first provides equal basic liberties for all citizens, such as freedom of speech and religion. This principle takes priority over considerations of social utility and the general welfare. The second principle concerns social and economic equality. Although it does not require an equal distribution of income and wealth, it permits only those social and economic inequalities that work to the advantage of the least well off members of society.
Philosophers argue about whether or not the parties to Rawls’s hypothetical social contract would choose the principles he says they would. In a moment, we’ll see why Rawls thinks these two principles would be chosen. But before turning to the principles, let’s take up a prior question: Is Rawls’s thought experiment the right way to think about justice? How can principles of justice possibly be derived from an agreement that never actually took place?
The Moral Limits of Contracts
To appreciate the moral force of Rawls’s hypothetical contract, it helps to notice the moral limits of actual contracts. We sometimes assume that, when two people make a deal, the terms of their agreement must be fair. We assume, in other words, that contracts justify the terms that they produce. But they don’t—at least not on their own. Actual contracts are not self-sufficient moral instruments. The mere fact that you and I make a deal is not enough to make it fair. Of any actual contract, it can always be asked, “Is it fair, what they agreed to?” To answer this question, we can’t simply point to the agreement itself; we need some independent standard of fairness.
Where could such a standard come from? Perhaps, you might think, from a bigger, prior contract—a constitution, for example. But constitutions are open to the same challenge as other agreements. The fact that a constitution is ratified by the people does not prove that its provisions are just. Consider the U.S. Constitution of 1787. Despite its many virtues, it was marred by its acceptance of slavery, a defect that