Veil of ignorance
Etymology
Introduced by the American philosopher John Rawls in A Theory of Justice (1971). Rawls asked us to choose principles of justice from an "original position" behind a veil that hides our race, class, talents, and beliefs, so that self-interest cannot bias the design. He argued rational people in that position would protect the least advantaged, a result he called justice as fairness. The image has since escaped philosophy into debates about policy, hiring, and institutional design.
noun phrase · /VAYL uv IG-nuh-runss/
A thought experiment in which you design the rules of a society without knowing what position you will occupy in it.
What it names
A practical test for fairness: you would build a system very differently if you might turn out to be its worst-off member rather than its best-off.
Example
Ask yourself, behind a veil of ignorance, whether you’d accept this pay structure if you didn’t yet know which job in the company you’d be assigned.
Related idea
The trolley problem probes intuitions about a single hard choice; the veil of ignorance is a method for designing fair rules before any choices arise.