Design society's rules as if you didn't know which seat you'd be born into

John Rawls proposed imagining you must choose the rules of society from behind a 'veil of ignorance' — not knowing whether you'll be born rich or poor, healthy or disabled, majority or minority. He argued that from behind that veil, rational people would choose rules that protect the worst-off, because they might end up there themselves.

— John Rawls, A Theory of Justice — 1971
Go deeper: get the book →