{"id":18804,"date":"2017-04-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-04-14T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leithart.level2d.com\/?p=527"},"modified":"2017-04-14T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-04-14T00:00:00","slug":"equality-and-difference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2017\/04\/equality-and-difference\/","title":{"rendered":"Equality and Difference"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

O<\/span>liver O\u2019Donovan (Desire of Nations<\/em><\/a>, 262-3) points to the difficulty in the concept of equality. A purely formal doctrine is uninteresting and thin. A theory of equality must be capable of posing a challenge to \u201calleged distinctions which may be supposed to justify differences in the way in which we treat people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet this substantive doctrine of equality runs up against the constants of actual social life: \u201call the social structures of affinity . . . depend upon differentiated social roles which introduce or depend on inequalities between one person and another. Leadership, responsibility, initiative and authority are forms of differentiation without which a community cannot function or survive; and yet they imply differences not only of function but of power,\u201d and this seems to run contrary to the ideal of equality.<\/p>\n

We seem to be faced with a choice\u2014either \u201can idea of equality that is purely ideal and abstract, an equality before God without social implications\u201d or \u201ca totalising egalitarianism that is destructive of all forms of society.\u201d O\u2019Donovan thinks there\u2019s an alternative, that we can coordinate \u201cour understanding of equality with our understanding of the humane forms of community.\u201d But that means we have to judge between different sorts of difference; we have to determine \u201cwhich [social] differentiations help, and which hinder, the meeting of person with person on a basis of equality, with neither of them slave or Lord.\u201d<\/p>\n

But that means we can\u2019t operate with a purely formal notion of equality. It has to be filled out substantively. <\/p>\n

And it also means we have to give up our fond fantasies of primordial autonomy and absolute equality. O\u2019Donovan offers feminism as an illustration of the logic: <\/p>\n

Confronted with the demand to recognise the \u2018full humanity\u2019 of women, one would be ill-advised to ask, \u2018But who ever denied it?\u2019 For a series of equivalences carry the argument irresistibly from the fact that women were assigned roles of subordination within various social structures to the conclusion that they were treated as unequal; and then, because equality is a state of nature constitutive for humanity, to the conclusion that their humanity was denied.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For a traditional, substantive understanding of equality, this is \u201csheer non sequitur<\/em>,\u201d since there is no conflict between difference in roles and equality; rather, any actual social equality requires such differentiation (280).<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oliver O\u2019Donovan (Desire of Nations, 262-3) points to the difficulty in the concept of equality. A purely formal doctrine is uninteresting and thin. A theory of equality must be capable of posing a challenge to \u201calleged distinctions which may be supposed to justify differences in the way in which we treat people.\u201d Yet this substantive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1271],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-equality"],"yoast_head":"\nEquality and Difference<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Oliver O'Donovan (Desire of Nations, 262-3) points to the difficulty in the concept of equality. A purely formal doctrine is uninteresting and thin. 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