veil of ignorance
E91451
concept in political philosophy
epistemic device
method of moral reasoning
philosophical thought experiment
The veil of ignorance is a philosophical thought experiment that asks people to design a just society without knowing their own position within it, ensuring fairness and impartiality in the principles they choose.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| veil of ignorance canonical | 4 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T765759 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: veil of ignorance Context triple: [John Rawls, notableIdea, veil of ignorance]
-
A.
The Idea of Justice
The Idea of Justice is a philosophical work by Amartya Sen that critiques traditional theories of justice and proposes a comparative, realization-focused approach grounded in public reasoning and human capabilities.
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B.
Formula of Autonomy
The Formula of Autonomy is a key Kantian moral principle that grounds ethical duties in the rational agent’s capacity to legislate universal moral law for themselves.
-
C.
kingdom of ends
The kingdom of ends is Immanuel Kant’s ethical ideal of a moral community in which all rational beings legislate and follow universal moral laws while treating each other always as ends in themselves, never merely as means.
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D.
Vérité
Vérité is a socially engaged novel by Émile Zola that denounces anti-Semitism and religious intolerance in France, inspired by the Dreyfus Affair.
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E.
On Equilibrium
On Equilibrium is a philosophical work by John Ralston Saul that explores the importance of balancing key human qualities—such as reason, ethics, and common sense—to create a more humane and democratic society.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: veil of ignorance Target entity description: The veil of ignorance is a philosophical thought experiment that asks people to design a just society without knowing their own position within it, ensuring fairness and impartiality in the principles they choose.
-
A.
The Idea of Justice
The Idea of Justice is a philosophical work by Amartya Sen that critiques traditional theories of justice and proposes a comparative, realization-focused approach grounded in public reasoning and human capabilities.
-
B.
Formula of Autonomy
The Formula of Autonomy is a key Kantian moral principle that grounds ethical duties in the rational agent’s capacity to legislate universal moral law for themselves.
-
C.
kingdom of ends
The kingdom of ends is Immanuel Kant’s ethical ideal of a moral community in which all rational beings legislate and follow universal moral laws while treating each other always as ends in themselves, never merely as means.
-
D.
Vérité
Vérité is a socially engaged novel by Émile Zola that denounces anti-Semitism and religious intolerance in France, inspired by the Dreyfus Affair.
-
E.
On Equilibrium
On Equilibrium is a philosophical work by John Ralston Saul that explores the importance of balancing key human qualities—such as reason, ethics, and common sense—to create a more humane and democratic society.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (51)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
concept in political philosophy
ⓘ
epistemic device ⓘ method of moral reasoning ⓘ philosophical thought experiment ⓘ |
| aimsAt |
equality of consideration
ⓘ
fairness ⓘ impartiality ⓘ |
| appliedIn |
bioethics
ⓘ
business ethics ⓘ discussions of distributive justice ⓘ global justice debates ⓘ public policy evaluation ⓘ |
| associatedWith |
justice as fairness
ⓘ
original position ⓘ |
| assumes | risk aversion of choosers ⓘ |
| contrastedWith | utilitarian aggregation without constraints ⓘ |
| coreIdea |
decision makers lack knowledge of their own conception of the good
ⓘ
decision makers lack knowledge of their own natural talents ⓘ decision makers lack knowledge of their own social position ⓘ principles are chosen without knowledge of personal advantages or disadvantages ⓘ |
| critiquedBy |
communitarian theorists
ⓘ
feminist philosophers ⓘ libertarian theorists ⓘ |
| describedIn | A Theory of Justice ⓘ |
| developedBy | John Rawls ⓘ |
| epistemicRestriction |
ignorance of class
ⓘ
ignorance of gender ⓘ ignorance of race ⓘ ignorance of social status ⓘ ignorance of wealth ⓘ |
| field |
ethics
ⓘ
moral philosophy ⓘ political philosophy ⓘ social contract theory ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
Immanuel Kant's moral philosophy
ⓘ
social contract tradition ⓘ |
| involves |
hypothetical choice situation
ⓘ
mutual disinterest of agents ⓘ rational agents ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1971 ⓘ |
| purpose |
to derive principles of justice
ⓘ
to ensure fairness in social arrangements ⓘ to model impartiality in moral judgment ⓘ |
| relatedConcept |
contractualism
ⓘ
impartial spectator ⓘ maximin rule ⓘ |
| supports |
Rawls's first principle of justice
ⓘ
Rawls's second principle of justice ⓘ difference principle ⓘ priority of basic liberties ⓘ |
| usedIn | Rawlsian original position ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: veil of ignorance Description of subject: The veil of ignorance is a philosophical thought experiment that asks people to design a just society without knowing their own position within it, ensuring fairness and impartiality in the principles they choose.
Referenced by (4)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject surface form:
John Rawls