X-Phi and Impartiality Thought Experiments: Investigating the Veil of Ignorance

Article Sidebar

PDF
Published: May 12, 2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.33392/diam.1499
Keywords:
veil of ignorance thought experiments empirical ethics experimental philosophy moral epistemology Rawls impartiality moral point of view

Main Article Content

Norbert Paulo
University of Salzburg
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9644-6194
Thomas Pölzler
University of Graz
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4311-0897

Abstract

This paper discusses “impartiality thought experiments”, i.e., thought experiments that attempt to generate intuitions which are unaffected by personal characteristics such as age, gender or race. We focus on the most prominent impartiality thought experiment, the Veil of Ignorance (VOI), and show that both in its original Rawlsian version and in a more generic version, empirical investigations can be normatively relevant in two ways: First, on the assumption that the VOI is effective and robust, if subjects dominantly favor a certain normative judgment behind the VOI this provides evidence in favor of that judgment; if, on the other hand, they do not dominantly favor a judgment this reduces our justification for it. Second, empirical investigations can also contribute to assessing the effectiveness and robustness of the VOI in the first place, thereby supporting or undermining its applications across the board.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Article Details

How to Cite
Paulo, Norbert, and Thomas Pölzler. 2020. “X-Phi and Impartiality Thought Experiments: Investigating the Veil of Ignorance”. Diametros 17 (64):72-89. https://doi.org/10.33392/diam.1499.
Issue
Vol. 17 No. 64 (2020)
Section
Articles

By submitting his/her work to the Editorial Board, the author accepts, upon having his/her text recommended for publication, that Diametros applies the Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license to works we publish. Under this license, authors agree to make articles legally available for reuse, without permission or fees, for any purpose except commercial. Anyone may read, download, copy, print, distribute or reuse these articles without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author, as long as the author and original source are properly cited. The author holds the copyright without any other restrictions. Full information about CC-BY-NC:  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode.

Creative Commons License

Share |
Crossref
Scopus
Google Scholar
Europe PMC

References

Aguiar F., Becker A., Miller L. (2013), “Whose Impartiality? An Experimental Study of Veiled Stakeholders, Involved Spectators and Detached Observers,” Economics & Philosophy 29 (2): 155–174.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266267113000175

Bocian K., Wojciszke B. (2014), “Self-Interest Bias in Moral Judgments of Others’ Actions,” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 40 (7): 898–909.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167214529800

Bond D., Park. J.-C. (1991), “An Empirical Test of Rawls’s Theory of Justice: A Second Approach, in Korea and the United States,” Simulation & Gaming 22 (4): 443–462.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1046878191224002

Brun G. (2017), “Thought Experiments in Ethics,” [in:] The Routledge Companion to Thought Experiments, M.T. Stuart, Y. Fehige, J.R. Brown (eds.), Routledge, London: 195–210.
View in Google Scholar

Bruner J.P. (2018), “Decisions Behind the Veil. An Experimental Approach,” [in:] Oxford Studies in Experimental Philosophy (vol. 2), T. Lombrozo, J. Knobe, S. Nichols (eds.), Oxford University Press, Oxford, New York.
View in Google Scholar

Bruner J.P., Lindauer M. (2018), “The Varieties of Impartiality, or, Would an Egalitarian Endorse the Veil?,” Philosophical Studies 177 (2): 459–477.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-018-1190-8

Carens J.H. (1987), “Aliens and Citizens: The Case for Open Borders,” The Review of Politics 49 (2): 251–273.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0034670500033817

Cath Y. (2016), “Reflective Equilibrium,” [in:] The Oxford Handbook of Philosophical Methodology, H. Cappelen, T.S. Gendler, J. Hawthorne (eds.), Oxford University Press, Oxford, New York: 213–230.
View in Google Scholar

Celikates R. (2012), “Der Schleier des Nichtwissens,” [in:] Philosophische Gedankenexperimente, G.W. Bertram (ed.), Reclam, Ditzingen: 229–235.
View in Google Scholar

Chan H.M. (2005), “Rawls’ Theory of Justice: A Naturalistic Evaluation,” Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 30 (5): 449–465.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03605310500253022

Cohnitz D. (2005), Gedankenexperimente in der Philosophie, Mentis, Paderborn.
View in Google Scholar

Demaree-Cotton J. (2016), “Do Framing Effects Make Moral Intuitions Unreliable?,” Philosophical Psychology 29 (1): 1–22.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09515089.2014.989967

Demaree-Cotton J. (2019), “Analyzing Debunking Arguments in Moral Psychology: Beyond the Counterfactual Analysis of Influence by Irrelevant Factors,” Behavioral and Brain Sciences 42: e151.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X18002716

DeScioli P., Massenkoff M., Shaw A. et al. (2014), “Equity or Equality? Moral Judgments Follow the Money,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 281 (1797): 20142112.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.2112

Foot P. (2003), Moral Dilemmas, Clarendon Press, Oxford, New York.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/019925284X.001.0001

Freeman S. (2006), Rawls, Routledge, London, New York.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203086605

Fritz Z., Cox C. (2019), “Conflicting Demands on a Modern Healthcare Service: Can Rawlsian Justice Provide a Guiding Philosophy for the NHS and Other Socialized Health Services?,” Bioethics 33 (5): 609–616.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/bioe.12568

Frohlich N., Oppenheimer J.A. (1993), Choosing Justice: An Experimental Approach to Ethical Theory, University of California Press, Berkeley.
View in Google Scholar

Frohlich N., Oppenheimer J.A., Eavey C.L. (1987), “Laboratory Results on Rawls’s Distributive Justice,” British Journal of Political Science 17 (1): 1–21.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007123400004580

Gähde U. (2000), “Zur Funktion ethischer Gedankenexperimente,” [in:] Wirtschaftsethische Perspektiven V: Methodische Ansätze, Probleme der Steuer- und Verteilungsgerechtigkeit, Ordnungsfragen, W. Gaertner (ed.), Duncker & Humblot, Berlin: 183–206.
View in Google Scholar

Gaus G., Thrasher J. (2016), “Rational Choice and the Original Position: The (Many) Models of Rawls and Harsanyi,” [in:] The Original Position, T. Hinton (ed.), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: 39–58.
View in Google Scholar

Gendler T.S. (2007), “Philosophical Thought Experiments, Intuitions, and Cognitive Equilibrium,” Midwest Studies in Philosophy 31 (1): 68–89.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4975.2007.00154.x

Greene, J.D. (2008), “The Secret Joke of Kant’s Soul,” [in:] Moral Psychology, W. Sinnott-Armstrong (ed.), vol. 3, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA: 35–80.
View in Google Scholar

Greenspan P. (2015), “Confabulating the Truth: In Defense of ‘Defensive’ Moral Reasoning,” Journal of Ethics 19 (2): 105–123.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10892-015-9193-6

Hare C. (2016), “Should We Wish Well to All?,” The Philosophical Review 125 (4): 451–472.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/00318108-3624764

Harris J. (1987), “QALYfying the Value of Life,” Journal of Medical Ethics 13 (3): 117–123.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/jme.13.3.117

Harris J. (1995), “Double Jeopardy and the Veil of Ignorance – a Reply,” Journal of Medical Ethics 21 (3): 151–157.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/jme.21.3.151

Harris J. (1996), “Would Aristotle Have Played Russian Roulette?,” Journal of Medical Ethics 22 (4): 209–215.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/jme.22.4.209

Harsanyi J.C. (1955), “Cardinal Welfare, Individualistic Ethics, and Interpersonal Comparisons of Utility,” Journal of Political Economy 63 (4): 309–321.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/257678

Harsanyi J.C. (1975), “Can the Maximin Principle Serve as a Basis for Morality? A Critique of John Rawls’s Theory,” The American Political Science Review 69 (2): 594–606.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1959090

Herne K., Mard T. (2008), “Three Versions of Impartiality: An Experimental Investigation,” Homo Oeconomicus 25: 27–53.
View in Google Scholar

Herne K., Suojanen M. (2004), “The Role of Information in Choices Over Income Distributions,” Journal of Conflict Resolution 48 (2): 173–193.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0022002703262859

Hinton T. (2016), “Introduction: The Original Position and The Original Position – an Overview,” [in:] The Original Position, T. Hinton (ed.), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK; New York, USA: 1–17.
View in Google Scholar

Huang K., Greene J.D., Bazerman M. (2019), “Veil-of-Ignorance Reasoning Favors the Greater Good,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116 (48): 201910125.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1910125116

Hübner D. (2017), “Three Remarks on ‘Reflective Equilibrium’,” Philosophical Inquiry 41 (1): 11–40.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5840/philinquiry20174112

Jollimore T. (2018). “Impartiality,” [in:] The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2020 Edition), E.N. Zalta (ed.), URL = https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2018/entries/impartiality/ [Accessed 04.03.2020].
View in Google Scholar

Kauppinen A. (2007), “The Rise and Fall of Experimental Philosophy,” Philosophical Explorations 10 (2): 95–118.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13869790701305871

Kauppinen A. (2018), “Who’s Afraid of Trolleys?,” [in:] Methodology and Moral Philosophy, J. Suikkanen, A. Kauppinen (eds.), Routledge, New York.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429452284-3

Kumar V., Campbell R. (2012), “On the Normative Significance of Experimental Moral Psychology,” Philosophical Psychology 25 (3): 311–330.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09515089.2012.660140

Landy J.F., Goodwin G.P. (2015), “Does Incidental Disgust Amplify Moral Judgment? A Meta-Analytic Review of Experimental Evidence,” Perspectives on Psychological Science 10 (4): 518–536.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691615583128

Lissowski G., Tyszka T., Okrasa W. (1991), “Principles of Distributive Justice: Experiments in Poland and America,” Journal of Conflict Resolution 35 (1): 98–119.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0022002791035001006

Löhr G. (2019), “The Experience Machine and the Expertise Defense,” Philosophical Psychology 32 (2): 257–273.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09515089.2018.1540775

Machery E. (2017), Philosophy within Its Proper Bounds, Oxford University Press, Oxford, New York.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198807520.001.0001

May J. (2018), Regard for Reason in the Moral Mind, Oxford University Press, New York.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198811572.001.0001

McKie J., Kuhse H., Richardson J. et al. (1996a), “Another Peep Behind the Veil,” Journal of Medical Ethics 22 (4): 216–221.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/jme.22.4.216

McKie J., Kuhse H., Richardson J. et al. (1996b), “Double Jeopardy, the Equal Value of Lives and the Veil of Ignorance: A Rejoinder to Harris,” Journal of Medical Ethics 22 (4): 204–208.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/jme.22.4.204

Michelbach P.A., Scott J.T., Matland R.E. et al. (2003), “Doing Rawls Justice: An Experimental Study of Income Distribution Norms,” American Journal of Political Science 47 (3): 523–539.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-5907.00037

Miscevic N. (2017). “Thought Experiments in Political Philosophy,” [in:] The Routledge Companion to Thought Experiments, M.T. Stuart, Y. Fehige, J.R. Brown (eds), Routledge, London: 153–170.
View in Google Scholar

Nadelhoffer T., Feltz A. (2008), “The Actor–Observer Bias and Moral Intuitions: Adding Fuel to Sinnott-Armstrong’s Fire,” Neuroethics 1 (2): 133–144.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12152-008-9015-7

Paulo N. (2018), “In Search of Greene’s Argument,” Utilitas 31 (1): 38–58.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0953820818000171

Paulo N. (2020), “Moral Intuitions between Higher-Order Evidence and Wishful Thinking,” [in:] Higher-Order Evidence and Moral Epistemology, M. Klenk (ed.), Routledge, London.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429325328-3

Paulo N., Pölzler T. (under review), “Thought Experiments and Experimental Ethics”.
View in Google Scholar

Petrinovich L., O’Neill P. (1996), “Influence of Wording and Framing Effects on Moral Intuitions,” Ethology and Sociobiology 17 (3): 145–171.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/0162-3095(96)00041-6

Pölzler T. (2018), Moral Reality and the Empirical Sciences, Routledge, New York.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315145211

Pölzler T., Wright J.C. (2019), “Anti-Realist Pluralism: A New Approach to Folk Metaethics,” Review of Philosophy and Psychology 11 (1): 53–82.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13164-019-00447-8

Pölzler T., Zijlstra L., Dijkstra J. (under review), “Moral Progress, Knowledge, and Error: What Are the Folk’s Implicit Commitments about Moral Objectivity?”.
View in Google Scholar

Raphael D.D. (2007), The Impartial Spectator: Adam Smith’s Moral Philosophy, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199213337.001.0001

Rawls J. (2001). Justice As Fairness: A Restatement, E. Kelly (ed.), The Belknap Press, Cambridge, MA.
View in Google Scholar

Rawls J. (2005), A Theory of Justice (original edition), The Belknap Press, Cambridge, MA.
View in Google Scholar

Rini R.A. (2013), “Making Psychology Normatively Significant,” Journal of Ethics 17 (3): 257–274.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10892-013-9145-y

Schnall S., Benton J., Harvey S. (2008), “With a Clean Conscience: Cleanliness Reduces the Severity of Moral Judgments,” Psychological Science 19 (12): 1219–1222.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02227.x

Schnall S., Haidt J., Clore G.L. et al. (2008), “Disgust as Embodied Moral Judgment,” Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin 34 (8): 1096–1109.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167208317771

Schwitzgebel E., Cushman F. (2012), “Expertise in Moral Reasoning? Order Effects on Moral Judgment in Professional Philosophers and Non-Philosophers,” Mind and Language 27 (2): 135–153.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0017.2012.01438.x

Schwitzgebel E., Ellis J. (2017), “Rationalization in Moral and Philosophical Thought,” [in:] Moral Inferences, J.-F. Bonnefon, B. Trémolière (eds.), Psychology Press, London, New York.
View in Google Scholar

Singer P., McKie J., Kuhse H. et al. (1995). “Double Jeopardy and the Use of QALYs in Health Care Allocation,” Journal of Medical Ethics 21 (3): 144–150.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/jme.21.3.144

Singer P. (1972), “Famine, Affluence, and Morality,” Philosophy & Public Affairs 1 (3): 229–243.
View in Google Scholar

Stuart M.T. (2017), “How Thought Experiments Increase Understanding,” [in:] The Routledge Companion to Thought Experiments, M.T. Stuart, Y. Fehige, J.R. Brown (eds), Routledge, London: 526–544.
View in Google Scholar

Sytsma J., Livengood J. (2015), The Theory and Practice of Experimental Philosophy, Broadview Press, Peterborough.
View in Google Scholar

Thomson J.J. (1976), “Killing, Letting Die, and the Trolley Problem,” The Monist 59 (2): 204–217.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5840/monist197659224

Tobia K., Buckwalter W., Stich S. (2013), “Moral Intuitions: Are Philosophers Experts?,” Philosophical Psychology 26 (5): 629–638.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09515089.2012.696327

Valdesolo P., DeSteno D. (2006), “Manipulations of Emotional Context Shape Moral Judgment,” Psychological Science 17 (6): 476–477.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01731.x

Wiegmann A., Okan Y., Nagel J. (2012), “Order Effects in Moral Judgment,” Philosophical Psychology 25 (6): 813–836.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09515089.2011.631995

Williamson T. (2008), The Philosophy of Philosophy, Wiley-Blackwell, Malden, MA.
View in Google Scholar

Wolf S., Dron C. (2015), “Intergenerational Sharing of Non-Renewable Resources: An Experimental Study Using Rawls’s Veil of Ignorance,” Constitutional Economics Network Working Paper Series, URL = https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/109031/1/821463128.pdf [Accessed 11.5.2020].
View in Google Scholar

Wolf S., Lenger A. (2014), “Utilitarianism, the Difference Principle, or Else? An Experimental Analysis of the Impact of Social Immobility on the Democratic Election of Distributive Rules,” [in:] Experimental Ethics: Toward an Empirical Moral Philosophy, C. Luetge, H. Rusch, M. Uhl (eds.), Palgrave Macmillan, London: 94–111.
View in Google Scholar

Żuradzki T. (2014), “Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis and Rational Choice under Risk or Uncertainty,” Journal of Medical Ethics 40 (11): 774–778.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2013-101470