What is the main idea of the passage?

The veil of ignorance tests fairness by asking what rules we would choose without knowing our place in society. (The veil is described as 'a test of conscience' for whether a rule is fair.)

Behind the veil, what is it that you do NOT know?

Which position in society you will occupy (You 'know you will live under the rules you pick, but not from which position.')

The author argues that the veil mainly removes:

Self-interest, so you cannot rig the rules to favor yourself. (Its purpose is to 'strip away the self-interest,' since you cannot favor a position you do not know you hold.)

In 'the self-interest that usually warps our sense of fairness,' the word "warps" most nearly means:

bends and distorts (Self-interest is a bad influence on fairness here, so 'warps' means bends or distorts it.)

The Veil of Ignorance: Level 5 Reading Comprehension Questions

Suppose you were asked to design the rules of a society - its laws, its share of wealth, its treatment of the weak - but with one strange condition. You must choose the rules before knowing who you will be in that society. You might be born rich or poor, healthy or sick, gifted or struggling, into the majority or a despised minority. You know you will live under the rules you pick, but not from which position.

This device, imagined by a modern philosopher, is called the veil of ignorance. Its purpose is to strip away the self-interest that usually warps our sense of fairness. Behind the veil, you cannot rig the rules in your own favor, because you do not know what your favor is. A rule that grinds the poorest into misery becomes a reckless bet, since the poorest might turn out to be you.

The claim is that fair principles are exactly the ones we would choose from behind this veil. We would likely insist on basic liberties for everyone, and we would arrange inequalities so that even the worst-off position is as good as it can be - because any of us could land there.

The veil is not a description of how societies are made; no one really chooses from such a position. It is a test of conscience. When a rule seems just to you, ask whether you would still accept it if you did not yet know which life inside it would be yours.

Comprehension questions