 However, in discussions about various risks in our existing societies we do not have much use for the hypothetical initial situations of contract theory. The risks and uncertainties in real life are of quite a different nature than the hypothetical uncertainty (or ignorance) about one’s own social position and conditions which is a crucial requirement in the initial situation. The thought experiment of an initial situation does not seem to provide us with any intellectual tools for the moral appraisal of risks in addition to those to which we have access even without trying to think away who we are.