ABSTRACT
Fairness mechanisms, like queuing up, taking turns, and so forth, play a crucial facilitative role in the associative process. Since Kantian fairness goes to the heart of an interactive morality, it must override other considerations that lack its moral stature. That is, Kantian fairness cuts through all social bricolage and holds philosophers to the requirement to treat others with the concern and respect due them. Some fairness mechanisms are preferable to others, in certain situations, simply because they provide workable and acceptable standards for accommodation. The desert claim can be honored, when ties arise, only by guaranteeing that each claimant has the same chance of receiving the good in question as all other claimants, hence the need to have recourse to appropriate fairness mechanisms. John Broome's argument presupposes that fairness concerns arise in distributive situations independent of, and prior to, desert ties.
