A-Z of Soft Skills: F is for Fairness

 This is not an advertisement for Fair and Lovely and is definitely not a testament to the sub-continental obsession with "fairness" that is only skin deep.

This post is about the principles of fairness--the philosophy that precedes and informs the concept of "justice."

As far as soft skills go, it is a biggie for me.

Fairness is not about equality. It is about equal opportunity. You and I may be vastly different in our interests, our intelligences, our capabilities and skills. We cannot be judged by the same criteria. One exam for all animals is not a fair test of ability. Giving every animal the same opportunity to prove its ability in its own way would be fair.

Various groups of people with varied philosophies have described fairness in different ways:

The Utilitarian says it is the "greatest good for the greatest number"
The Egalitarian says it is when we give the same provisions to everybody regardless of ability or effort
The Socialist says it it when people give according to their abilities and are given according to their needs
The Capitalist says it is what people "earn" according to their effort, their productivity or their market value
The Libertarian says it is when I keep what I earn and you keep what  you earn and nobody has the right to question or dilute my absolute ownership over my property

The best definition however comes from John Rawls' Fairness Principle:

Say we're at the beginning of creating a new society and we don't know who we are in that society in terms of our status, wealth, occupation, intelligence, physical abilities, personal attributes etc

In such a state, where we could be the lowest of the low or the highest of the high but are under a veil of ignorance, every reasonable person would subscribe to the following principles:

After all, as Mariann Wright Edelman said, "The future which we hold in trust for our own children will be shaped by our fairness to other people's children."