The US philosopher John Rawls (1921-2002) is perhaps best known for his ‘veil of ignorance’ thought experiment, which he first laid out in his landmark work A Theory of Justice (1971). Envisioning a society built by rule-makers who were blind to their own identities, Rawls reasoned that structures that privilege certain classes over others would be unpopular, and a more rational and just society would emerge.
However, as this TED-Ed video illustrates, A Theory of Justice does far more than just describe the thought experiment. Rather, Rawls articulates the policies he believes should emerge from this initial conceit, outlining a democratic government with an economic structure that allows for equal opportunity and, ultimately, only as much inequality as would benefit society’s worst-off members. With stylish visuals, the animation details the ideas and ideals outlined in A Theory of Justice, criticisms of the text raised by prominent thinkers, and the lasting impact of Rawls’s groundbreaking work more than half a century after its initial publication.
video
Food and drink
Local tensions simmer amid a potato salad contest at the Czech-Polish border
14 minutes
video
Knowledge
An Indigenous myth and a geological survey elicit two ways of knowing one place
4 minutes
video
War and peace
A war meteorologist’s riveting account of how the Allies averted a D-Day disaster
6 minutes
video
Neuroscience
Dog vision is a trendy topic, but what can we really know about how they see?
11 minutes
video
Information and communication
An animation built from road signs is a whirlwind study of flash communication
2 minutes
video
Biology
An elegy for a dying microbe explores what we really mean by ‘death’
9 minutes
video
Art
Creating art that was aware of itself – and the viewer – made Manet the first modernist
15 minutes
video
Biotechnology
It’s our responsibility to engineer corals that can weather the world we’ve created
11 minutes
video
War and peace
A century later, can poetry help us make sense of the First World War’s horrors?
9 minutes