{"id":324,"date":"2003-08-11T03:05:14","date_gmt":"2003-08-11T11:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/archives\/2003\/08\/11\/elizabeth-anderson-defines-egalitarianism\/"},"modified":"2003-08-11T03:05:14","modified_gmt":"2003-08-11T11:05:14","slug":"elizabeth-anderson-defines-egalitarianism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=324","title":{"rendered":"Elizabeth Anderson defines egalitarianism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Demosthenes<\/a> quotes from a Michael Waltzer interview, and in doing so reminded me that Waltzer wrote an article about Israel and Palestine that I admired and blogged about last October<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Reading the Waltzer interview led me in turn to Elizabeth Anderson’s<\/a> essay, “What is the Point of Equality?” (Not online, sorry). Anderson argues that many academic philosophers – by framing the question of equality in terms of “unequal native talents” and the like – have missed the point. Here’s a passage I enjoyed:<\/p>\n

What is the Point of Equality?<\/strong><\/p>\n

There must be a better way to conceive of the point of equality. To do so, it is helpful to recall how egalitarian political movements have historically conceived of their aims. What have been the inegalitarian systems that they have opposed? Inegalitarianism asserted the justice or necessity of basing social order on a hierarchy of human beings, ranked according to intrinsic worth. Inequality referred not so much to distributions of goods as to relations between superior and inferior persons. Those of superior rank were thought entitled to inflict violence on inferiors, to exclude or segregate them from social life, to treat them with contempt, to force them to obey’, work without reciprocation, and abandon their own cultures. These are what Iris Young has identified as the faces of oppression: marginalization, status hierarchy, domination, exploitation, and cultural imperialism. Such unequal social relations generate, and were thought to justify, inequalities in the distribution of freedoms, resources, and welfare. This is the core of inegalitarian ideologies of racism, sexism, nationalism, caste, class, and eugenics.<\/p>\n

Egalitarian political movements oppose such hierarchies. They assert the equal moral worth of persons. This assertion does not mean that all have equal virtue or talent. Negatively, the claim repudiates distinctions or moral worth based on birth or social identity-on family membership, inherited social status, race, ethnicity, gender, or genes. There are no natural slaves, plebeians, or aristocrats. Positively, the claim assert that all competent adults are equally moral agents: everyone equally has the power to develop and exercise moral responsibility, to cooperate with others according to principles of justice, to shape and fulfill a conception of their good.”<\/p>\n

Egalitarians base claims to social and political equality on the fact of universal moral equality. These claims also have a negative and a positive aspect. Negatively, egalitarians seek to abolish oppression – that is, forms or social relationship by which some people dominate, exploit, marginalize, demean, and inflict violence upon others. Diversities in socially ascribed identities, distinct roles in the division of labor, or differences in personal traits, whether these be neutral biological and psychological differences, valuable talents and virtues, or unfortunate disabilities and infirmities, never justify the unequal social relations listed above. Nothing can justify treating people in these ways, except just punishment for crimes and defense against violence. Positively, egalitarians seek a social order in which persons stand in relations of equality. They seek to live together in a democratic community as opposed to a hierarchical one. Democracy is here understood as collective self-determination by means of open discussion among equals, in accordance with rules acceptable to all. To stand as an equal before others in discussion means that one is entitled to participate, that others recognize an obligation to listen respectfully and respond to ones arguments, that no one need bow and scrape before others or represent themselves as inferior to others as a condition of having their claim heard.<\/p><\/div>\n

Interesting stuff… and very relevant to current debates about same-sex marriage, in my opinion.<\/p>\n

Relevant link: Check out the discussion on Half the Sins of Mankind,<\/a> too (mostly of the Waltzer interview, but there’s a little bit about Elizabeth Anderson)...<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Demosthenes quotes from a Michael Waltzer interview, and in doing so reminded me that Waltzer wrote an article about Israel and Palestine that I admired and blogged about last October. Reading the Waltzer interview led me in turn to Elizabeth … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-feminism-sexism-etc","category-race-racism-and-related-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}