The idea of equality

著者: Bernard Williams - Cambridge University Press eBooks 1973 被引用: 300

The idea of equality is used in political discussion both in statements of fact, or what purport to be statements of fact – that men are equal – and in statements of political principles or aims – that men should be equal, as at present they are not. The two can be, and often are, combined: the aim is then described as that of securing a state of affairs in which men are treated as the equal beings which they in fact already are, but are not already treated as being. In both these uses, the idea of equality notoriously encounters the same difficulty: that on one kind of interpretation the statements in which it figures are much too strong, and on another kind much too weak, and it is hard to find a satisfactory interpretation that lies between the two.