How to Be Perfect (First Year Read, 2023)

Contractualism

"You know how when you buy something electronic, like a dishwasher or Bluetooth speaker or something, there's a three-hundred-page manual printed in fifty different languages ... and then there's a two-page 'Quick Start Guide' that tells you the basics of how to turn it on and plug it in and stuff? In rules-based ethics, Kant wrote the three-hundred-page manual. Contractualism is the Quick-Start Guide."

(Source: Schur, p. 83)

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Further Reading

The Social Contract & the Veil of Ignorance

John Rawls approached contractualism from his perspective as a political philosopher, and his ideas were rooted in the idea of the social contract as something that all participants of the society agree to follow. The veil of ignorance is one aspect of the social contract and is meant to ensure that every decision is made to benefit all citizens equally without taking into account differences between them.

The Social Contract

"Social Contract Theory is the idea that society exists because of an implicitly agreed-to set of standards that provide moral and political rules of behavior."

(Source: Ethics Unwrapped)

The Social Contract (Ethics Unwrapped)

The Veil of Ignorance

"The Veil of Ignorance is a device for helping people more fairly envision a fair society by pretending that they are ignorant of their personal circumstances."

(Source: Ethics Unwrapped)

The Veil of Ignorance (Ethics Unwrapped)

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Further Reading