ABSTRACT
The notion of fairness so closely overlaps the more prominent notions of justice and equality that it is pointless to make much of whatever differences of usage might separate them. Fairness involves sharing burdens or benefits equally, or maintaining a proper proportion between benefit and contribution. The notion of fairness is frequently used to indicate the absence of a blemish or to assert that things are proper, appropriate, or as they should be, or that things have gone according to hoyle. Sometimes claims of fairness are little more than general assertions of commendation or propriety, and similarly, sometimes claims of unfairness involve generic assertions of disapprobation or impropriety. Employed chiefly as a technical term within deontological moral theories, the concept of Kantian fairness does frequent duty in philosophical discourse. Generic protestations of fairness or unfairness can be inspired by legitimate moral wrongs or by simple dissatisfaction about some particular course of events.
