(intro music)
Hello, my name is Luvell Anderson,
and I am an assistant[br]professor of philosophy
at the University of Memphis.
Today, I'm going to talk a little about
an idea called "The Original Position."
How would you set up a[br]society that is just?
Justice is an important idea we use
to evaluate our social and[br]political institutions.
Things like our courts, government,
educational, and economic systems.
As we can see from the strong reactions
of those who feel like they[br]have been treated unjustly,
having just social and[br]political institutions
is essential for having[br]a peaceful society.
For example, African Americans[br]have held marches,
endured fire hoses and death,[br]throughout various periods
in U.S. history in the name of justice.
Also, Tibetan monks have[br]set themselves on fire
in protest of what they view as unjust
or oppressive Chinese policies.
So as we can see, justice[br]is an important idea.
Before we discuss possible ways[br]of creating a just society,
we should first have an[br]idea about what it means
for a society to be just.
Discussions about the concept of justice
go back a long time.
The ancient Greek philosopher[br]Plato, for example,
described justice as an[br]internal harmony, that is,
the parts of some thing, say[br]an individual or a society,
being ordered in the right way.
For others, justice is importantly tied
to notions like equality.
For example, Aristotle says[br]that justice is the equal.
And others have tied justice[br]to the idea of dessert,
or what someone deserves.
The notion of justice[br]that we will focus on
thinks of justice in terms of fairness.
The famous political[br]philosopher John Rawls
came up with a way of[br]developing principles of justice
that distributes benefits and burdens
associated with our social[br]and political practices
in a way that is fair to all parties.
Rawls introduces a thought experiment.
A thought experiment is a device
that engages our imagination to help us
think about the nature of things.
So in this thought experiment,
Rawls imagines free,[br]mutually disinterested,
and rational persons who sit down
and devise principles of justice
in an initial situation that[br]is structured to be fair
to all the parties involved.
He calls this initial situation
"The Original Position."
Now, what makes the situation fair
has to do with the kind of considerations
the representatives in[br]this original position
can bring to bear when reasoning about
the principles of justice.
For instance, no one can[br]tailor principles selfishly
to favor her particular condition.
Also, Rawls does not allow things like
natural fortune or social circumstances
to be acceptable bases for advantaging
or disadvantaging persons.
A unique feature of[br]Rawls' original position
is what we might refer to[br]as the epistemic constraints
on the persons in the situation.
The word "epistemic" here simply refers
to the kinds of things a person can know.
In the original position, the persons,
or let's call them "agents,"
they know nothing about themselves
or their position in society.
They do not know their race, age, gender,
their strength,[br]intelligence or psychology,
talents, handicaps, or social standing.
Nor do they know theirs views about
what they find valuable[br]or important in life.
Rawls refers to this condition as being
under the veil of ignorance.
Of course, agents in the original position
aren't completely without knowledge.
They know the kinds of[br]facts that are given to us
by natural sciences like biology,
and social sciences like psychology.
Rawls believes that the[br]principles of justice
the agents construct in[br]the original position,
under the veil of ignorance,[br]will be fair simply
because the situation[br]itself is set up fairly.
Now I mentioned earlier that the agents
in the original position[br]are mutually disinterested
and rational.
I should probably take a[br]moment to say a little more
about what that means.
The agents are mutually disinterested
in that they are only concerned
to advance their own interests.
Agents in the original[br]position will not be moved
to sacrifice their own interests
for the sake of advantaging someone else,
nor will they try to disadvantage others
due to envy or hatred.
And the agents' decisions[br]in the original position
are rational, in that they[br]use the most effective means
to achieve their goals.
To wrap up:
the original position is a fair situation
where agents who know nothing[br]in particular about themselves,
but know only general facts, agree upon
principles of justice[br]that we use to decide
how to set up a just society.
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