Complex equality and the abstractness of statistical fairness: using social goods to analyze a CV scanner and a welfare fraud detector

This paper explores the possibility of using Michael Walzer’s theory of Spheres of Justice (or Complex Equality) as a means to counter some of the pitfalls of current statistical approaches to algorithmic fairness. Walzer’s account of justice, which is based on social goods and their distributive criteria, is used to analyze two hypothetical algorithms: a CV scanner and a welfare fraud detector. It is argued that using complex equality in this way can help address some of the problems caused by the abstractness of statistical fairness metrics and can help guide the choice of an appropriate metric.