Equality

Throughout human history, equality as an ideal has evoked powerful emotions. It has fueled revolutions and social movements, and people have died and have killed for it. In addition, it has been the subject of formal analysis that has sought to analyze, compare, and measure inequalities in goods, liberties, and opportunities. This entry examines the concept of equality, beginning with the two fundamental questions: “why equality?” and “equality of what?” The second issue concerns the varied domains in which equality may be sought. This distinguishes the various social ethical conceptions, but it seems a priori that such a moral question can be answered only if the former question is: why equality in the first place? There turns out to be various types of reasons for equality, and in particular the trivial equality as generality or universality, the basic equality as logic or rationality, and the socially essential equality as the absence of subjection and domination (hence as this freedom). The discussion of equality from rationality introduces an analysis in terms of rule equality.

The entry then explores alternative conceptualizations of distributive justice, which can be considered with respect to both their substance (the goods to be distributed) and their structure (the principles according to which distribution should occur). The concept of equality of liberty is then explored with respect to the equality of basic rights; of real liberty (including means for the possibility of free action); and of opportunity. The relationship between equality and responsibility, the concept of equal hypothetical liberty, and the notion of comparative egalitarianism are also considered.

The concept of equality is an important concern for political science, and the entry considers the relationship between democracy and political equality. For philosophers, the concept of impartiality [Page 803]has been a central one, and the entry discusses its elaboration through the theory of the original position. The work of social scientists on the measurement and comparison of inequality is also noted. Finally, equality in social relations can be seen as grounded in reciprocity—the fundamental tendency of human beings to treat and relate to others as they treat and relate to you.