Fairness

A choice in company

The shared workshop has one empty shelf. Your project is already spread over two, but you arrive first and reach for a third. Another member is carrying a single small box. “First come” suddenly sounds like a principle remarkably suited to your elbow.

An invented illustrative scene.

Fairness gives…

a share others can understand

What Fairness makes possible

A clear allocation leaves room for other people’s work and makes later disagreements discussable. The smaller box belongs to someone whose project also matters. Equal consideration may call for different amounts of space when actual needs differ.

Fairness: finding the balance

An impartial rule answers to the purpose of the shared resource. Sometimes a fitting division is unequal; the reason should be available to everyone affected.

Fairness in ordinary life

The shared bill

Agree how to divide a cost before paying, taking differing orders or an earlier offer into account.

The favored friend

Use the same relevant criteria when a friend and a newcomer ask for a place.

Nearby virtues, different work

Integrity

Integrity keeps the agreement dependable; Fairness examines whether its terms give the affected interests their due.

Generosity

Generosity can offer part of your own share; Fairness concerns the defensible allocation before that gift.

Fairness and its counterfeits

The convenient procedure

A counterfeit of Fairness: choosing a procedure because you know it favors you. Ask whether the same reason would hold if your position changed.

The generous division of another person’s share

A counterfeit of Fairness and Generosity: volunteering someone else’s space to appear accommodating. Consult the person whose resource you are offering.

How to cultivate Fairness

• Identify the people whose relevant interests are easy to overlook.
• Explain the allocation without relying on status.
• Revisit an agreement when its practical demands change.

Try it today

In a modest shared arrangement, check the relevant needs before taking the remaining portion.

Do not surrender a necessary resource under pressure to appear fair. Discuss an arrangement proportionate to actual needs.

Questions worth returning to

• Which fact makes this difference in shares defensible?
• Would I accept the reason from the other position?

Keep the practice proportionate

Do not surrender a necessary resource under pressure to appear fair. Discuss an arrangement proportionate to actual needs.

These pages offer ideas for reflection and character practice, not professional advice. Choose practices suited to your circumstances and abilities. You may adapt, pause, or skip an exercise; putting yourself or someone else at risk is not proof of virtue.

Quotations and further reading

Seven readings, one for each day. All remain available here. Historical arguments and fictional dialogue are identified in their source notes.

1. the feeling and the experience of that race are absolutely necessary to the realization of the broadest justice for all citizens.

   W. E. B. Du Bois · Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil
   Linked text
   W. E. B. Du Bois · Linked English edition

   Du Bois argues that excluding Black citizens removes knowledge justice needs. A workshop allocation likewise needs affected people’s claims; quietness is no reason to omit them.

2. the actual consequences which happen to proceed from any action, have a very great effect upon our sentiments concerning its merit or demerit

   Adam Smith · The Theory of Moral Sentiments
   Linked text
   Adam Smith · Linked English edition

   A favorable result can bias the account of how a share was obtained. Examine the relevant claims before congratulating the person who arrived first.

3. Why should I be a slave? There was no reason why I should be the thrall of any man.

   Frederick Douglass · My Bondage and My Freedom
   Linked text
   Frederick Douglass · Linked English edition

   Douglass rejects enslavement even when his treatment improves. Equal standing is not a favor from the powerful, and sharing shelves is not equivalent in scale to liberation.

4. It is possible for a person to be dishonest by taking time or energy that belongs to someone else, just as much as tangible property.

   Booker T. Washington · Character Building
   Linked text
   Booker T. Washington · Linked English edition

   The lecture extends consideration beyond visible property. Its later demand for work above duty is not adopted here; fair sharing also respects another person’s time and capacity.

5. never takes unfair advantage

   John Henry Newman · The Idea of a University Defined and Illustrated
   Linked text
   John Henry Newman · Linked English edition

   The historical gentleman’s sketch places advantage under judgment. Arriving first supplies an opportunity, not a sufficient reason for taking the whole shelf.

6. I mean to see who is entitled to this property.

   Anthony Trollope · The Warden
   Linked text
   John Bold (fictional dialogue) · Linked English edition

   Bold’s inquiry concerns the claims behind a comfortable arrangement. Read it as fictional reasoning, with the novel’s later complications still in view.

7. it is astonishing how pleasantly conscience takes our encroachments on those who never complain or have nobody to complain for them.

   George Eliot · Middlemarch
   Linked text
   Fictional narrator · Linked English edition

   The narrator exposes the convenience of unheard objections. Fair allocation asks whose interests disappear when the quieter member does not press a claim.

Continue through the catalog