Originally Posted by FillYourBrain
ok, for those who don't know what the veil of ignorance is about, basically if you're going to be making a policy, it has to be able to fit for people regardless of who they are. You aren't to consider what the characteristics of the person are when making that policy and it has to be acceptable when applied to any person.
So you asked for an example. Lets start with affirmative action. Since we are to have no prior knowledge of the characteristics of the individual beforehand, the statement "White skin should not be preferred to black skin when hiring" can not be used. A more appropriate and unbiased statement would be "Skin color should not be considered when hiring".
With the "veil of ignorance" corrected statement in place, affirmative action can not be reasonably considered as it violates the principle that skin color should not be considered.
This is the basic idea. If you think in a group vs group way, you tend to make unfair policy.