Opening page…
Write the rules, then be born
You must design society before finding out whether you will be rich or poor, healthy or ill, powerful or ignored. Which rules would you refuse to leave to luck?
Choose the rules without knowing your place under them. This tests which inequalities you can defend when you might be the one who loses.
Your answer
A little context
Anyone who has shared a cake with a sibling knows a simple rule of fairness: one cuts, the other chooses. Suddenly the cutter takes great care. This question applies the same trick to a whole society. You write the rules without knowing which slice of life you will get.
Nearby questions
- Are people basically good?Mencius said anyone who saw a child about to fall into a well would feel a jolt of alarm. Xunzi answered that people are born selfish and only learn to be good. Answer from what you've seen people do when nobody was making them.
- Does anyone deserve to suffer?Imagine that punishing someone guilty would deter nobody, protect nobody and change nothing. Many people still feel it should happen.
- Born on the other sideWhat gives you a stronger claim to a safe, prosperous country than someone born just across its border?
- Is it ever right to break the law?Rosa Parks broke a law and is remembered as a hero. Plenty of people who break laws believe they are right too.
- Should any speech be banned?Free speech is easy to defend for words you like. Any line you draw will one day be enforced by people who disagree with you.
