so, what's fair?

So, John Piper isn't exactly utilitarian, but some of the principles are similar to hedonism.

This week we read about justice as fairness for society. Rawls, I believe, suggests that in order to make the basic structure of a society, some "representatives" get together and plan it out, being sure to include equality and freedom, without knowing who they represent. (Note - in general, I like his claims...at least those I could understand). He thinks that over time, citizens in such well-ordered societies will not give in to greed or the desire to rule over others because they will just love how the society works and guarantees freedom and equality for its lifelong members. In fact, those perceptions will be based on from generation to generation. Pluralism can exist, and because of pluralism common and established values have to be of a political nature (as opposed to a comprehensive one: moral, religious, philosophical). People, and organizations, are not always going to agree. But, if organizations are reasonable, they can agree to support and abide by some common political values and come to an overlapping consensus (this is not to be mistaken with compromise). There may exist some extreme cases where an organization will not agree, but presumably such organizations will not remain as their social reproduction probably relies on a government that can enforce their rules.

On another note of fairness, I'm suffering through the third time someone has taught me Arabic letters and writing. I tried to convince my Arabic teacher I should be moved up to level 102, but she insists it's better for me to stick with this one. She actually shook her head "la" as she read the paragraph I wrote that was supposed to demonstrate my proficiency. I guess I don't have that much extra time to try to catch up where Derija differs from Arabic anyway. Today's vocabulary list includes 12 words, bab and warka being the only ones the same in both languages.

Ma'salama