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Concept of equaltiy

Made by Simar pal singh

A.N-A11911110004

Amity law school (2)


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Conetents


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Equality

At least since the FrenchRevolution, equality has served as one of the leading ideals of

thebody politic; in this respect, it is at present probably the mostcontroversial of the greatsocial ideals. There is controversy concerning the precise notion of equality, the relation

of justice andequality (the principles of equality), the material requirements andmeasure

of the ideal of equality (equality of what?), the extension of equality (equality among

whom?), and its status within a comprehensive (liberal) theory of justice (the value of

equality).

Equality is a contested concept: "People who praise it or disparage it disagree about

what they are praising or disparaging". Our first task is therefore to provide a clear

definition of equality in the face of widespread misconceptions aboutits meaning as a

political idea.

The terms "equality" , "equal," and "equally"signify a qualitative relationship. Equality

(orequal) signifies correspondence between a group ofdifferent objects, persons,processes or circumstances that have thesame qualities in at least one respect, but not

all respects, i.e.,regarding one specific feature, with differences in other features.


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Equality can be used in the very same sense both todescribe and prescribe, as with

"thin": "you are thin" and "you are too thin." The approach taken to defining the

standard of comparison for both descriptive and prescriptive assertions of the concept

of equality is very important . In the case ofdescriptive use of equality, the common

standard is itself descriptive, e.g. two people weigh the same. Aprescriptive

use ofequality is present when a prescriptive standard is applied,i.e., a norm or rule, e.g.

people ought to be equal before thelaw. The standards grounding prescriptive

assertions of equality contain at least two components. On the one hand, there is

adescriptive component, since the assertions need to contain descriptive criteria, in

order to identify those people to which therule or norm applies.

The question of this identification whobelongs to which category? may itself be

normative, e.g. towhom do the U.S. laws apply? On the other hand, the

comparativestandards contain something normative a moral or legal rule,in the

example, the U.S. laws specifying how those fallingunder the norm are to be treated.

Such a rule constitutes theprescriptive component


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2. Principles ofEqualityand Justice

Equality in its prescriptive usage has, of course, a close connectionwith morality and

justice in general and distributive justice inparticular. From antiquity onward, equality has

been considered aconstitutive feature of justice. (On the history of the concept,cf.Albernethy 1959, Benn 1967, Brown 1988, Dann 1975, Thomson 1949.)Throughout

history, people and emancipatory movements use the languageof justice to pillory

certain inequalities. But what exactly is theconnection between equality and justice, i.e.,

what kind of role doesequality play in a theory of justice? The role and correct account

ofequality, understood as an issue of social justice, is itself adifficult philosophical issue.

To clarify this, philosophers havedefended a variety of principles and conceptions of

equality


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2.1 FormalEquality

must be treated equally with regard to this respect.Thisis the generally accepted formaleq


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2.3 MoralEquality

n beings. Against Plato and Aristotle, the classical formulafor justice according to which a


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2.4 Presumption ofEquality

principle of equal distribution for all goods politically suitedfor the process of public distribu


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3.1 Simple Equalityurnished with thesame material level of goods and services, represents a strict positionas


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3.4 Equality of Welfare

usible to count allindividual preferences as equal, some such as the desire to doothers


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Thank you

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