Justice for all: what the veil of ignorance shows - Animal Ethics (animal-ethics.org)
Philosopher John Rawls invented the concept of the "veil of ignorance" as a thought experiment to promote fair policies. Basically you need to imagine that you are going to be born randomly into a society. How would you want the society structured? Image society A with high levels of inequality with a 90% chance of poverty and 10% chance of massive wealth. Then imagine society B with perfect equality. No risk of poverty. Which society would you feel more comfortable being born into randomly?
But why should we only apply this idea to humans? Why not expand the "veil of ignorance" to animals? If you were to be randomly born as ANY ANIMAL, how would you want your society to operate? We could call this the zoological veil of ignorance.
I feel like the religious idea of reincarnation subtly implies this zoological veil of ignorance - hence some religious believers like the Jains do their best to even minimize the amount of bugs that they accidentally kill. I wonder if reincarnation inspires more empathy for these reasons.