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Aspects of Fairness

"It's not fair! He's got more than me." "It's not fair! She always get to sit next to you, Mum." So say children. Then adults say "It's not fair that someone should get benefits if they don't contribute" and "It's not fair that other people have so many privileges that we don't."

But what is fairness? Fairness about what - size of piece of cake, love, financial benefits, privileges, and so on. Fairness has something to do with justice, reward and punishment, so contributions entitle us to benefits - fairness is to do with entitlement. But what about someone who is unable to contribute? It would be harsh and unethical to debar those from benefits. There seems to be a difference between entitlement and generosity.

Dooyeweerd's aspects can help us separate out issues, in two ways:

They can help us distinguish entitlement, reward, justice, etc., as qualified by the juridical aspect, from generosity, care, and humaneness, as qualified by what Dooyeweerd called the ethical aspect.
They can help us distinguish the kinds of things about which we can be fair, kinds of contributions. Also different kinds of things about which we can be generous. Below are some examples.

Aspects of life about which we can be fair or unfair
Aspect		Anticipating Use (examples)	Knowledge Elicitation (examples)
Quantitative aspect (Discrete amount)
Spatial aspect			-
Kinematic aspect (Flowing movement)
Physical aspect (Forces, energy, mass)
Biotic/organic aspect	Food, sustenance
Sensitive/psychic aspect	Sight, hearing, motor movement (disabilities)
Analytical aspect
Formative aspect	Ability to achieve
Lingual aspect	(Access to) media, knowledge, education
Social aspect	Friendships. Status. Roles.
Economic aspect	Resources, money, time
Aesthetic aspect	Fun, leisure, a pleasant environment
Juridical aspect	(Access to) justice, redress
Ethical aspect	Love, care	But can such things ever be subject to juridical norms?
Pistic/Faith aspect	Belief.	But is it meaningful to talk about fairness here?

This page is part of a collection that discusses application of Herman Dooyeweerd's ideas, within The Dooyeweerd Pages, which explain, explore and discuss Dooyeweerd's interesting philosophy. Email questions or comments would be welcome.

Written on the Amiga and Protext.

Created: 29 May 2012 Last updated: