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Against Egalitarianism*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 April 2017

Extract

It is possible that the fame of the Texas Rose Rustlers Society has not yet reached readers of these words. They may want to know then that its members prize roses that survive unattended in the wilds of Texas, having eluded the benevolent attention of gardeners. These unattended roses are not too distantly related to the ‘unofficial English rose’ that the poet says ‘Unkempt about those hedges blows’ in the proximity of The Old Vicarage at Grantchester. As all respectable societies, the Texas Rose Rustlers has by-laws stating the principles that unite its members. Here are some of them: there is more than one way of being beautiful; good climates are in the eye of the beholder; if you are attacked by disease, abandonment, or a bad chain of events, do not despair, there is always the chance that you were bred to be tough; and everyone should not smell the same. I mention these admirable principles because they offend profoundly against egalitarianism, which happens to be my target on this occasion.

Type
Papers
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy and the contributors 2006

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References

1 ‘Every nation of the world is divided into haves and have-nots … The gap … is enormous. Confronting these disparities, the egalitarian holds that it would be a morally better state of affairs if everyone enjoyed the same level of social and economic benefits’, Arneson, Richard J., ‘Equality’, in Goodin, Robert & Pettit, Phillip, (eds.) A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy, (Oxford: Blackwell, 1993), 489Google Scholar. ‘From the standpoint of politics, the interests of the members of the community matter, and matter equally.’ Dworkin, Ronald, ‘In Defense of Equality’, Social Philosophy and Policy, No. 1, (1983), 2440, at 24Google Scholar. ‘Everyone matters just as much as everyone else. [I]t is appalling that the most effective social systems we have been able to devise permit … material inequalities.’ Nagel, Thomas, Equality and Partiality (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), 64Google Scholar. ‘Being egalitarian in some significant way relates to the need to have equal concern, at some level, for all persons involved.’ Sen, Amartya, Inequality Reexamined (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992), ixGoogle Scholar. ‘A basic principle of equality [is] the principle of equal consideration of interests. The essence of the principle of equal consideration of interests is that we give equal weight in our moral deliberations to the like interests of all those affected by our actions.’ Singer, Peter, Practical Ethics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 2nd ed., 21Google Scholar. ‘We want equalization of benefits … [because] in all cases where human beings are capable of enjoying the same goods, we feel that the intrinsic value of the enjoyment is the same…. We hold that … one man's well-being is as valuable as any other's.’ Vlastos, Gregory, ‘Justice and Equality’, in Social Justice, Brandt, Richard B. (ed.) (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1962), 5051.Google Scholar

2 ‘What makes a system egalitarian is the priority it gives to the claims of those‥ at the bottom…‥ Each individual with a more urgent claim has priority … over each individual with a less urgent claim.’ Nagel, Thomas, ‘Equality’, in Mortal Questions (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979), 118Google Scholar. ‘We can express a more general principle as follows: … first, maximize the welfare of the worst off … second, for equal welfare of the second worst-off… and so on until… the equal welfare of all the preceding.’ Rawls, John, A Theory of Justice (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1971), 8283.Google Scholar

3 The passages are from: Dworkin, Ronald, Sovereign Virtue: The Theory and Practice of Equality (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000), 1Google Scholar; Singer, , Practical Ethics, 16Google Scholar; Vlastos, , ‘Justice and Equality’, 51Google Scholar; Williams, Bernard, ‘Philosophy as a Humanistic Discipline’, Philosophy 75, (2000), 477496, at 492.Google Scholar

4 A partial list of such critics is: Charvet, John, A Critique of Freedom and Equality (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981)Google Scholar; Flew, Antony, The Politics of Procrustes (Buffalo: Prometheus Books, 1981)Google Scholar; Frankfurt, Harry G., ‘Equality as a Moral Ideal’, in The Importance of What We Care About (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988)Google Scholar and ‘Equality and Respect’, in Necessity, Volition, and Love (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999)Google Scholar; Hayek, Friedrich A., The Constitution of Liberty (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960)Google Scholar; Kekes, John, The Illusions of Egalitarianism (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2003)Google Scholar; Lucas, J. R., ‘Against Equality’, Philosophy 40 (1965), 296307Google Scholar and ‘Against Equality Again’, Philosophy 42 (1967), 255280Google Scholar; MacIntyre, Alasdair, After Virtue (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1984)Google Scholar; Matson, Wallace, ‘What Rawls Calls Justice’, Occasional Review 89, (1978), 4547Google Scholar; and ‘Justice: A Funeral Oration’, Social Philosophy and Policy, No. 1, (1983), 94113Google Scholar; Narveson, Jan, Respecting Persons in Theory and Practice (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002)Google Scholar; Pojman, Louis P., ‘A Critique of Contemporary Egalitarianism’, Faith and Philosophy 8, (1991), 481504Google Scholar; and Sher, George, Desert (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987).Google Scholar

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6 Dworkin, , Sovereign Virtue, 130.Google Scholar

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19 Mill, John Stuart, On Liberty (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1978), 51.Google Scholar

20 Dworkin, , Sovereign Virtue, op. cit.Google Scholar, (references in the text are to the pages of this book).

21 Rawls, , Theory of Justice, 311312.Google Scholar

22 Ibid., 312.

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