From the school yard to the workplace, there's no charge more damning
than "you're being unfair!" Born out of democracy and raised in open
markets, fairness has become our de facto modern creed. The very symbol
of American ethics--Lady Justice--wears a blindfold as she weighs the
law on her impartial scale. In our zealous pursuit of fairness, we have
banished our urges to like one person more than another, one thing over
another, hiding them away as dirty secrets of our humanity. In Against
Fairness, polymath philosopher Stephen T. Asma drags them triumphantly
back into the light. Through playful, witty, but always serious
arguments and examples, he vindicates our unspoken and undeniable
instinct to favor, making the case that we would all be better off if we
showed our unfair tendencies a little more kindness--indeed, if we
favored favoritism. Conscious of the egalitarian feathers his argument
is sure to ruffle, Asma makes his point by synthesizing a startling
array of scientific findings, historical philosophies, cultural
practices, analytic arguments, and a variety of personal and literary
narratives to give a remarkably nuanced and thorough understanding of
how fairness and favoritism fit within our moral architecture. Examining
everything from the survival-enhancing biochemistry that makes our
mothers love us to the motivating properties of our "affective
community," he not only shows how we favor but the reasons we
should. Drawing on thinkers from Confucius to Tocqueville to
Nietzsche, he reveals how we have confused fairness with more noble
traits, like compassion and open-mindedness. He dismantles a number of
seemingly egalitarian pursuits, from classwide Valentine's Day cards to
civil rights, to reveal the envy that lies at their hearts, going on to
prove that we can still be kind to strangers, have no prejudice, and
fight for equal opportunity at the same time we reserve the best of
what we can offer for those dearest to us. Fed up with the
blue-ribbons-for-all absurdity of "fairness" today, and wary of the
psychological paralysis it creates, Asma resets our moral compass with
favoritism as its lodestar, providing a strikingly new and remarkably
positive way to think through all our actions, big and small.
Watch an animated book trailer here: http:
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjPhTQ9zi5Q
