The original formulation of this thought experiment concerns "imagined deliberators" who are not motivated by "psychological propensities" but might be affected by "excusable general envy.
In an essay named for this thought experiment, Ronald Dworkin analogizes it to a poker game played in which it is found that the "deck is one card short" in the "middle of a hand."  The original formulation of this thought experiment concerns "imagined deliberators" who are not motivated by "psychological propensities" but might be affected by "excusable general envy." A "thin theory of the good," and not a "thick theory," is used to "explicate the notion of (*) rationality" possessed by the "mutually disinterested agents" of this thought experiment, which concerns people who match their "conjectured principles" and "considered judgments" of fairness through a process called "reflective equilibrium". Decisions are made from beyond a "veil of ignorance" in, for 10 points, what thought experiment in John Rawls' A Theory of Justice?
In an essay named for this thought experiment, Ronald Dworkin analogizes it to a poker game played in which it is found that the "deck is one card short" in the "middle of a hand."  
original position [prompt on veil of ignorance]