Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- PART 1 WHAT IS JUSTICE?
- PART 2 HOW TO DESERVE
- PART 3 HOW TO RECIPROCATE
- PART 4 EQUAL RESPECT AND EQUAL SHARES
- 18 Equality
- 19 Does Equal Treatment Imply Equal Shares?
- 20 What Is Equality for?
- 21 Equal Pay for Equal Work
- 22 Equality and Opportunity
- 23 On the Utility of Equal Shares
- 24 The Limits of Equality
- PART 5 MEDITATIONS ON NEED
- PART 6 THE RIGHT TO DISTRIBUTE
- References
- Index
18 - Equality
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- PART 1 WHAT IS JUSTICE?
- PART 2 HOW TO DESERVE
- PART 3 HOW TO RECIPROCATE
- PART 4 EQUAL RESPECT AND EQUAL SHARES
- 18 Equality
- 19 Does Equal Treatment Imply Equal Shares?
- 20 What Is Equality for?
- 21 Equal Pay for Equal Work
- 22 Equality and Opportunity
- 23 On the Utility of Equal Shares
- 24 The Limits of Equality
- PART 5 MEDITATIONS ON NEED
- PART 6 THE RIGHT TO DISTRIBUTE
- References
- Index
Summary
“Hey honey, aren't you enjoying Billy's birthday party?”
“Daddy, how come Billy got a bike and I didn't?”
“Oh, Cindy. Let me give you a hug. It's Billy's eighth birthday, honey. You'll get a bike too, just like his, on your eighth birthday. I promise. But you're only six years old. You have to wait a bit.”
Cindy pushed away. “Daddy, you're supposed to treat us the same. If you give Billy a bike, you give me a bike. And if he gets his now, I get mine now.”
We are all equal, sort of. We are not equal in terms of our physical or mental capacities. Morally speaking, we are not all equally good. Evidently, if we are equal, it is not by virtue of our actual characteristics but despite them.
In fact, what we mean by equality is best seen as political rather than metaphysical (or even moral) in nature. We do not expect people to be the same, but we see differences as having no bearing on how people ought to be treated as citizens. Or differences, when they do matter, will not matter in the sense of being a basis for hierarchical class structure. People once saw society as consisting of separate classes – commoners and people of noble birth – but that belief belongs to another age. As a society, we made moral progress. Such progress consists in part of progress toward political and cultural equality.
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- Information
- The Elements of Justice , pp. 107 - 108Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006