Equality

Abstract

The authors of the American Declaration of Independence wrote ‘We hold this truth to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’ The next historic revolution, the French, had as its watchword ‘Liberty, Equality, Fraternity’. Both phrases applied in the beginning to equality of political rights, and both were at first associated with the right to possess property and use it to the best advantage. Later revolutionaries, holding that that kind of liberty can only lead to exploitation, see that liberty and equality cannot both be maximized at the same time, and plump for equality. As a distinguished contemporary philosopher (Kolakowski, 1978, p. 186) puts it:

Taken to an extreme, this means that it matters less whether people have much or little so long as they all have the same. If there is a choice between improving the lot of the poor but allowing inequality to subsist, or leaving the poor as they are, and depressing everyone to their level, it is the second alternative that must be chosen.