Gowder, I’m talking to the people who say unto me, “Friendly to who?” and “Oh, so you get to say what ‘Friendly’ means.” I find that the existing literature rarely serves my purposes. In this case I’m driving at a distinction between the object level and the meta level, and the notion of bedrock (the Buck Stops Immediately). Does the political philosophy go there? - for I am not wholly naive, but of course I have only read a tiny fraction of what’s out there. I fear that much political philosophy is written for humans by humans.
Roland, I confess that I’d intended the original reading of the dialogue as simple greed on Zaire’s part, but your reading is also interesting… I would still tend to say that 1⁄3 apiece is the fair division, but that either of the other two are welcome to donate portions of pie to Zaire; the resulting division might perhaps be termed utilitarian. The morally interesting situation is when Xannon thinks Zaire deserves more pie but Yancy disagrees.
I would still tend to say that 1⁄3 apiece is the fair division
I’m curious why you personally just chose to use the norm-connoting term “fair” in place of the less loaded term “equal division” … what properties does equal division have that make you want to give it special normative consideration? I could think of some, but I’m particularly interested in what your thoughts are here!
Gowder, I’m talking to the people who say unto me, “Friendly to who?” and “Oh, so you get to say what ‘Friendly’ means.” I find that the existing literature rarely serves my purposes. In this case I’m driving at a distinction between the object level and the meta level, and the notion of bedrock (the Buck Stops Immediately). Does the political philosophy go there? - for I am not wholly naive, but of course I have only read a tiny fraction of what’s out there. I fear that much political philosophy is written for humans by humans.
Roland, I confess that I’d intended the original reading of the dialogue as simple greed on Zaire’s part, but your reading is also interesting… I would still tend to say that 1⁄3 apiece is the fair division, but that either of the other two are welcome to donate portions of pie to Zaire; the resulting division might perhaps be termed utilitarian. The morally interesting situation is when Xannon thinks Zaire deserves more pie but Yancy disagrees.
I’m curious why you personally just chose to use the norm-connoting term “fair” in place of the less loaded term “equal division” … what properties does equal division have that make you want to give it special normative consideration? I could think of some, but I’m particularly interested in what your thoughts are here!