Equality
"A claim for equality of material position can be met only by a government with totalitarian powers."
F.A.Hayek, Law, Legislation, and Liberty
Equality is the state or quality of being equal, or, in mathematics, a statement, usually an equation, that one thing equals another.[1]
Definition
'Equality' is a contested concept, so much so that according to various authors it has no unified meaning — or even is devoid of meaning.
The terms "equality," "equal," and "equally" signify a qualitative relationship. 'Equality' (or 'equal') signifies correspondence between a group of different objects, persons, processes or circumstances that have the same qualities in at least one respect, but not all respects, i.e., regarding one specific feature, with differences in other features.
'Equality' can be used in the very same sense both to describe and prescribe, as with "thin": "you are thin" and "you are too thin." In the case of descriptive use of equality, the common standard is itself descriptive, e.g. two people weigh the same. A prescriptive use of equality is present when a prescriptive standard is applied, i.e., a norm or rule, e.g. people ought to be equal before the law.
'Equality' and 'equal' are incomplete predicates that necessarily generate one question: equal in what respect? Two objects a and b are equal in a certain respect if, in that respect, they fall under the same general terminus. 'Equality' denotes the relation between the objects that are compared. Every comparison presumes a concrete attribute defining the respect in which the equality applies — equality thus referring to a common sharing of this comparison-determining attribute. Differing conceptions of equality here emerge from one or another descriptive or normative moral standard. There is another source of diversity as well: various different standards might be used to measure inequality, with the respect in which people are compared remaining constant.
For this reason, it helps to think of the idea of equality or for that matter inequality, understood as an issue of social justice, not as a single principle, but as a complex group of principles forming the basic core of today's egalitarianism. Both equality and inequality are complex and multifaceted concepts.[2]
References
- ↑ "equality", The Free Dictionary, referenced 2012-04-24.
- ↑ Gosepath, Stefan. "Equality", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2011 Edition), referenced 2012-04-24.