Learner understands the concept and use of veil of ignorance.
Learner understands the concept of equal opportunity.
Expected Preparation
Learning Events to be Completed Before
None.
Obligatory for Students
None.
Optional for Students
Rawls, John (1971) A Theory of Justice �Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
Rawls, John (2001) Justice as Fairness: A Restatement Erin Kelly ed. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
References and background for students:
None.
Recommended for Teachers
Daniels, Norman (2007), Just Health: Meeting Health Needs Fairly Cambridge University Press
Gauthier, David (1986) Morals by Agreement Oxford University Press
Mills, Charles (2009) ‘Rawls on Race/Race in Rawls’ The Southern Journal of Philosophy (2009): 161-184
Moller Okin, Susan (1989) Justice, Gender and the Family New York: Basic Books
Rawls, John (1999b) A Theory of Justice: Revised Edition Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
Harsanyi, John (1975) ‘Can the Maximin Principle Serve as a Basis for Morality? A Critique of John Rawls’ Theory’ America Political Science Review 69(2): 594-606
Taylor, Charles (1985). ‘The nature and scope of distributive justice’ in Philosophy and the Human Sciences: Philosophical Papers 2 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 289-317
Wenar, Leif, (2017) ‘John Rawls’, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2017 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.)
The materials of this learning event are available under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
Instructions for Teachers
The theory of justice is a kind of a social contract theory. Therefore, it is useful to compare it to Hobbes' Leviathan, an early version of the same kind.
The class is based on John Rawles' 1971 "A Theory of Justice".
Being a social contract theory, the arbitrariness of the elements of the contracts comes into question, therefore the question of moral realism.
The core of the idea is the veil of ignorance, which may be introduced with the cake example (You have two kids and a big piece of cake. You want them to share fairly. So you instruct them: kid #1 is doing the cutting, kid #2 can pick first when the cake is cut in two. This way kid #1 will always try and cut the cake in half).
Consequences of the idea.
Limitations of social fairness and sensitive topics like positive discrimination and affirmation.
Please visit the home page of the consortium HCAIM
Acknowledgements
The Human-Centered AI Masters programme was co-financed by the Connecting Europe Facility of the European Union Under Grant №CEF-TC-2020-1 Digital Skills 2020-EU-IA-0068.
The materials of this learning event are available under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
The HCAIM consortium consists of three excellence centres, three SMEs and four Universities
