Fairness

AARON HASS. Ph.D.

The Idea is really Rather Simple : Do not do other what you would not want done to you. Yes, the idea is rather simple, but it provides the quintessential moral principle of human relationships.

          Sometimes morality appears terribly complex because of competing loyalties, opposing claims, and a myriad of situational variables. But in our day to day contacts with loved ones, as well as those more distant, the admonition provides a powerful guiding light: Do not do to other what you would not want done to you.

          Seventeen hundred years later, the German philosopher Immanuel Kant Paraphrased the Golden Rule and Called it the Categorical Imprerative. For Kant, each person should be his own moral legislator. But any law we make for ourselves must be one that we would agree to be adopted by all. For example if I were to consider breaking a promise, I must weigh whether I would wish all people to have the luxury of breaking their promises.

          Philosophers have evolved a variation of the notion of fairness in the principle of reversibility. If I make a decision or propose an agreement that affects you, could I trade places with you and feel good about that decision? Let's say I loan you money at a particular interest rate. If the loan were offered to me, would I feel that eh terms of the loan were fair? Or what if I offered to pay for a new fence separating our properties, if you trimmed back the trees over looking our mutual property line. Would I feel good about the arrangement if I were the one to pay for the trimming, While you took care of the new fence?

           The principle of reversibility should not be confirmed to formal contracts. If I put myself in the shoes of those with whom I interact on even mundane matters, would I be pleased with the way I was being treated? If I were the person waiting on my table in the restaurant, would I feel good about how I was being treated by the customer (that is, me?). If I were one of my students, would I feel that I was being fairly evaluated?

          Our impulse to fairness is activated when we are of one human group. Our impulse to fairness is activated when we recognize that we all have the same essential needs, especially the need to be treated with respect and consideration.