Invoking political philosopher John Rawls’s Original Position/Veil of Ignorance thought experiment is a common Ethics Bowl strategy. And for good reason. While our judgments are usually shaped by our personal interests and biases, imagining what we would agree to if we could be blocked from knowing our gender, race, income, education, etc. gives us access to what truly free and equal people would endorse, and in that way, greater insight into objective morality. This is easy to explain, but much tougher to understand, let alone apply.
Good news! Fellow Pellissippi State philosophy professor Kristin Pandolfi and I worked with work study philosophy student Clay Spencer to develop a new and improved Rawls game – a Rawls game that’s downloadable, customizable, printable, and ready for your Ethics Bowl team. If you’ve never used but are curious about Rawls’s approach, or if you’re familiar but might have room to improve, scroll down to the bottom of this American Philosophical Association Blog article, download the immigration, healthcare, firearms, abortion, or taxation character set, review and tweak the details if desired, print, cut, and follow the “How to Play” directions midway through the article.
If it works, or not, let me know! I played the Rawls game with my high school Ethics Bowl team earlier this season, in my college classroom just yesterday, and will use it in another college class next week, and am always interested in making it better. And who knows. Maybe you’ll love it so much that you’ll create a new character set on a new topic that we can share here for the Ethics Bowl community. Enjoy!