The question addressed in this paper asks what is to be learned with respect to the issue of gender ratio when pedagogical and political philosophical analyses apply principles of equity

In this paper, I employ the method of reflective equilibrium to analyse background conditions of our considered judgements about distributive justice generated by a thought experiment called “Three Children and a Flute”, proposed and interestingly commented upon by Amartya Sen in his book The Idea of Justice. I claim that, contrary to Sen’s conclusions drawn from the thought experiment, for the utilitarian and egalitarian visions of distributive justice to hold other things about distribution of resources and social life that we are not willing to accept must be true and that it is not the case then that it is a ‘difficult decision’ to make what pattern of distribution should prevail in the thought experiment. To boot, I hold that libertarian or natural pattern of distribution does not presuppose these background conditions that we are not willing to accept and which are presupposed by egalitarian and utilitarian distributive patterns. I conclude that taking into consideration the fact that there is a plethora of inconsistencies, counter-intuitive consequences and anti-scientific implications of the utilitarian and egalitarian solutions to the thought experiment, it is a natural pattern of distribution that prevails in the ‘flute dilemma’.

This text should be perceived as an review article in which the content of the monograph Social Inequalities in Access to Education… by Richard Borowicz allows for the presentation of his heritage which is leftfor the next generation of sociologists and educators. The text therefore exposes the approach to the profession of sociologist which was characteristic of Ryszard Borowicz, his scientific workshop and inspirations that we may draw from in relation to how to analyze the surrounding reality, how to communicate what we have determined, how to make methodological choices and, within them, choose the methods. At the same time, the text presents the continuity of the research into sociology of education in Poland, preserved also thanks to the research by the Author of the book discussed here. What is worth emphasizing is the diagnosis and assessment of the Polish transformation at the beginning of the twenty-first century in the context of young people’s educational fates (and their determinants), which is dominant in the monograph. The essence of Ryszard Borowicz’s research interests is the study on school selections. Therefore, the text contains an attempt at analyzing the findings in the book Social Inequality… relating to the mechanisms of selection in the educational system, including the analysis of the relevance of specific content, links with the findings by other researchers, and most of all, with the Author himself – his beliefs, motivations, and attitudes, which distinguished him in the scientific community.