This entry reconstructs Rawls’s hypothetical agreement about fair social principles. It explains the veil of ignorance, the parties’ rationality, the social goods they seek, and constraints on the choice. The argument depends on these details rather than on a bare instruction to imagine being someone else.
The choice situation hides personal information while retaining general facts needed to reason about institutions. That combination makes the model more specific than an invitation to imagine being anyone. Pay attention to how the parties are represented, what they seek, and what options they consider. The resulting argument depends on those conditions. Changing them may create an interesting alternative, but it should be identified as a revision rather than automatically attributed to Rawls’s original model.