Who should own the best flutes?
Aristotle said that the essence of a flute is to make beautiful music and therefore the best flutes should be owned by the best flute players.
Aristotle believed that justice means giving everyone what they deserve. We can figure out who deserves what by thinking about the purpose of a thing. Everything has a purpose (a telos in Greek). The purpose of a knife is to cut. The purpose of a bed is to be slept in. The purpose of a flute is to make music. If a flute is not making music — if it is kept in the cupboard of a rich man, for example — it is not fulfilling its purpose (its telos). Aristotle said that the best flutes should be owned by the best flute players so they can make beautiful music.
I thought it would be fun to think about other ways to answer the question. What if we distribute flutes according to their market price, for example? Good flutes are expensive! Maybe they should only be owned by rich people. Alternatively, what if we give the best flutes to the least well-off in the spirit of egalitarianism?
For this exercise, assume that the best flutes are a rare and beautiful thing. We can’t just order more Best Flutes from Amazon.
Here’s my attempt to enumerate the different ways we could distribute the best flutes according to different conceptions of justice.
The Best Flute Players
The purpose of a flute is to make beautiful music. For a flute to fulfil its purpose, it should be owned by the best flute player.
Rich People
The market sets flute prices. The best flutes are expensive and the only people who can afford them are rich people. Perhaps the rich people with the best flutes will hire the best flute players or perhaps they’ll lend them a flute occasionally. Or perhaps they won’t. Perhaps they’ll keep the best flute in a safe place to sell for a great price later. They can do what they like because they are rich.
The State
We can’t trust the market to distribute flutes efficiently. It would be better if all the flutes were owned by the state which could distribute them according to need. Perhaps we could establish a National Flute Academy to nurture and reward the best flute players.
Poor People
It’s not fair that rich people get all the best flutes and poor people get none. We should distribute the best flutes to the least well-off in society.
The Worst Flute Players
It’s not fair that the best flute players just keep getting better just because they have access to the best flutes. If the worst flute players had better flutes, they could be great flute players too.
The Children of Rich People
This flute has been in my family for four generations. I’ve been meaning to learn to play it but I’ve been busy you know. But my flute is my property and I am entitled to do whatever I want with it. I plan to give it to my eldest son.
Slovenians
The oldest flutes were discovered in Slovenia. The flutes were 45,000 years old. Flutes are part of Slovenian culture. Only Slovenians should have flutes. For anyone else to play a flute would be cultural appropriation.
Ethnic Minorities
Flute playing is a white European thing and ethnic minorities have been excluded for too long. We should decolonise flute playing and give the best flutes to people of colour.
Let the Voters Decide
Every time a good flute becomes available, we should have a vote to see who should own it.
The Best Flute Players
For any decision, we should consider which choice will result in the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. If the best flute players have the best flutes, they will be happy and the rest of us will be happy to hear them play.
Who should own all the nice things?
Our question works for any good thing, not just expensive musical instruments. The answers might be different though.
If there is a limited supply of houses for people to live in, who should have them? Would it be OK for some people to own multiple houses while other people are homeless? Aristotle might say that the purpose of a house is to be lived in so to have rich people own multiple houses and leave them empty is to deny the telos of a house. According to House and Gardens magazine, Charles Windsor owns ‘at least seven palaces, 10 castles, 12 homes, 56 cottages, and 14 ancient ruins’. That’s enough to give a home to all the homeless people in Bristol. Our society says it’s fine for one man to own dozens of homes because his ancestors were victorious in battle while others sleep in the streets. Is there a better way to distribute homes?
What about education? Who should have the best physics education? Should the kids who are best at physics get access to the best physics teachers? Or the kids who love physics the most? What about the kids who are not very good at physics? After all, they need the most help. Who should get the best physics teachers?
What about tickets to the FA Cup final? My friend Tony gave me his extra ticket for the 1990 FA Cup final replay vs Crystal Palace because he thought the ticket should go to a Man United fan. He could have sold it for a lot of money but he chose to give it to me because I was a fan.
What about iPhones? What about places in pre-school? What about rides in Disneyland or pairs of Levis in Soviet Russia? I think Aristotle’s question is a good way to make us really think about the way we distribute goods and whether there’s a better way. It doesn’t have to be the same way for every kind of good. Perhaps some goods are best distributed by the market and others by the state?
What about healthcare? A woman in my cancer community said it wasn’t fair that she had paid thousands for her husband’s cancer treatment while some poor person could just waltz in and get treated for free. In some countries, it’s expected that rich people should have better access to healthcare while in other countries, it’s assumed that everyone should have access to healthcare whether they have money or not. How do we decide what’s the best way to distribute healthcare?
Lots of questions in philosophy are useless but the question of how we distribute goods in society is an important one. I don’t agree with Aristotle’s answer but I am glad he asked the question.
Who do you think should own the best flutes? Can you guess which was my answer?
Great article! I think the flutes should go to those who put in the effort regardless of ability. But then I’m not sure whether that’s on a loan basis so they can be taken away if the flutes end up at the back of the wardrobe. But who owns them in that case? The State? And what if you’re putting in some effort and enjoying the flute but then someone comes along who is keener than you are? Do you have to give it to them?
I don’t know. Political philosophy and the fair distribution of resources is tricky. I could have a little rant about things in the UK but I’ll stick with flutes!
Flute ownership could be tokenized and owned by a DAO with an initial minting of its bespoke cryptocurrency held partly by investors and partly by flautists. Flute use would auctioned off in its cryptocurrency, subject to the vote of token holders. Simple as can be.
In all seriousness, DAO thinkers and researchers have some very interesting ideas around shared ownership of goods, but I don’t think any of them would support seizing the world’s best flute to be tokenized. Similarly, I think the answer to the question you posed would depend on the flute’s current owner.