A Moral Framework for Understanding of Fair ML through Economic Models of Equality of Opportunity

Proceedings of the Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency 1 (2019)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

We map the recently proposed notions of algorithmic fairness to economic models of Equality of opportunity (EOP)---an extensively studied ideal of fairness in political philosophy. We formally show that through our conceptual mapping, many existing definition of algorithmic fairness, such as predictive value parity and equality of odds, can be interpreted as special cases of EOP. In this respect, our work serves as a unifying moral framework for understanding existing notions of algorithmic fairness. Most importantly, this framework allows us to explicitly spell out the moral assumptions underlying each notion of fairness, and interpret recent fairness impossibility results in a new light. Last but not least and inspired by luck egalitarian models of EOP, we propose a new family of measures for algorithmic fairness. We illustrate our proposal empirically and show that employing a measure of algorithmic (un)fairness when its underlying moral assumptions are not satisfied, can have devastating consequences for the disadvantaged group's welfare.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,616

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Democratizing Algorithmic Fairness.Pak-Hang Wong - 2020 - Philosophy and Technology 33 (2):225-244.
Fairness and Philosophy.Alan Ryan - 2006 - Social Research: An International Quarterly 73:597-606.
Fairness and philosophy.Alan Ryan - 2006 - Social Research: An International Quarterly 73 (2):597-606.
Fair markets.Norman E. Bowie - 1988 - Journal of Business Ethics 7 (1-2):89 - 98.
Fairness.Brad Hooker - 2005 - Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 8 (4):329 - 352.
Equality as Comparative Fairness.Larry Temkin - 2015 - Journal of Applied Philosophy 34 (1):43-60.
Fairness, Political Obligation, and the Justificatory Gap.Jiafeng Zhu - 2014 - Journal of Moral Philosophy (4):1-23.
Family fairness.Edna Ullmann-Margalit - 2006 - Social Research: An International Quarterly 73 (2):575-596.
Fraternity and Equality.Geoffrey Cupit - 2013 - Philosophy 88 (2):299-311.

Analytics

Added to PP
2020-12-01

Downloads
24 (#563,255)

6 months
5 (#247,092)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references