[Reader-list] CONF: Fairness: Its Role in Our Lives

[Stephen Clark]

----- Forwarded message from Bertold Bernreuter <bernreuter at polylog.org> -----
Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2005 18:36:42 +0100
     From: Bertold Bernreuter <bernreuter at polylog.org>
Reply-To: Bertold Bernreuter <bernreuter at polylog.org>
  Subject: InterPhil: CONF: Fairness: Its Role in Our Lives
       To: InterPhil <interphil at polylog.org>

Conference Announcement

"Fairness: Its Role in Our Lives"
A Social Research Conference
New School for Social Research
New York, NY (USA)
14-15 April 2005


Fairness is a central motivating force in our private and
public lives. Who gets what, how is it distributed, and how
do we feel about that parceling out of power, resources,
access, even attention? When allocation and distribution
lead to indignation, the results can be explosive: witness
the civil rights movement in the United States or, earlier,
the Revolutionary War; the overthrow of apartheid in South
Africa; the experiment of the Soviet Union. Current examples
abound, from the struggle for a Palestinian state to
questions of how to handle taxation, health insurance, and
social security in the USA.

Equality, justice, and social change all have their roots in
our perceptions of fairness, and the very ability to
perceive fairness is itself rooted in the behavior of our
animal ancestors. It arises early in childhood, when it is
echoed in the familiar cry of “That’s not fair.”
Understanding what drives those perceptions, and examining
how issues of fairness have played out through history, is
key to effecting lasting change.

This conference brings scientists, policy makers,
historians, philosophers, and economists together in a
public forum, to explore research on perceptions of fairness
and consider historical case studies in the context of that
science. Our shared purpose is to move toward informed
solutions to some of the serious social problems that now
confront us.


Contact:

Tanya Suphatranand
Conference Coordinator
Social Research
65 Fifth Ave. Room 375
New York, NY 10003
USA
Phone: +1-212-2292488
Fax:   +1-212-2295476
Email: socres at newschool.edu
Website: http://www.socres.org/fairness/



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- ----- End forwarded message -----


- --
Stephen Clark
Dept of Philosophy
University of Liverpool

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