All themes

Equality

This theme runs through several big questions. Here are the ones where it plays out.

The questions that illuminate it

Relation to othersDistributive justice

How should wealth and resources be distributed in society?

Correcting gaps in wealth can trample each person's freedom and merit; leaving them as they are can enshrine luck, inheritance, and force. To take a position is to say what truly belongs to each, and what we owe one another.

EgalitarianismLibertarianismSufficientarianismMarxThomas AquinasLockeYOU

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Relation to othersSocial identity

Are categories like gender, race or class natural, constructed, or objective social realities?

Depending on whether these categories are facts of nature, mere ideas we could dispel by changing our words, or very real social forces, we fight inequality in quite different ways. To take a position is to say what, in the social order, can be undone, and what can only be acknowledged.

SocialnaturalismSocialconstructionSocialrealismYOU

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Relation to othersNature of rights

Where do rights come from?

When we speak of "human rights", are they realities inscribed in our nature, rules that societies institute, or tools justified by their benefits? What we can claim, and what no law should be able to take away, depends on it.

Natural rightsLegal positivismRights from utilityPolitical constructivismYOU
Locke
90
5
5
Kant
85
15
The Enlightenment
70
5
15
10
Bentham
60
40
Mill
10
90
Utilitarianism
10
90
+ 2 more figures

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