Egalitarianism accentuates inequality

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EGALITARIANISM ACCENTUATES INEQUALITY

Equality (  ) is a “correspondence in quantity, degree, value, rank or ability”.  Therefore people are equal when they have the same amount of goods, can attach the same value to their lives, are equally happy and satisfied with their overall situation and have equal ability in certain tasks.

We intuit that inequality is essentially constitutive of our being:  people are born from different backgrounds, with different talents, riches and attitudes towards life.  We are born unequal.  Certain philosophers, however, contend that all human beings are - and should be treated as - equals.

This raises the question of whether - and to what extent - intervention is required to rectify this imbalance: “Is it morally acceptable that people have an unfair advantage over others?”  “How can this be solved? Is it through equal welfare, equal rights or equal outcomes?”

The conundrum has been debated at length by philosophers and a series of solutions has been proposed that goes under the name of Egalitarianism.  All of these agree that equality should be universal in its application and should treat people impartially.  The American philosopher Larry Temkin, however, contends that “universality” and “impartiality” are insufficient criteria as they pursue equality as a means of achieving another ideal ( Temkin, p.156).  He believes in the principle of “equality as comparability” ( Temkin, p. 156), which analyses a person’s situation in relation to a group or society.

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Thus inequality, as Temkin intends it, stems from a situation in which a person, though no more deserving, is better off than another, especially if this wealth is obtained through luck and not choice (for example, if one who took a calculated risk fares worse than another whose risk was far greater, this is unfair, thus the inequality must be rectified).

 Temkin is pursuing the idea of substantive equality- that is, unequal situations, whether or not they be the result of fair procedures, should be corrected.  He wants to eliminate the role of luck in our lives to facilitate discrimination ...

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