Equality: Secular Views

Question 1

The Social Contract Theory

Answer 1

• Human beings in their natural state are free and equal
• To live peacefully together, they consent (explicitly (laws) or implicitly (social norms)) to give up freedoms in order to benefit all
• Equality is a fundamental theme: Everyone is equal before the contract
  Key themes:
• All humans are naturally equal
• Government must protect equality or else they loose their legitimacy
• Focuses on reason, not divine command

Question 2

The Social Contract Theory: Evaluation

Answer 2

Strengths:
- Places rational agreements at the centre of ethics, allowing for a universal foundation of right

Weakness:
- assumes all individual have equal bargaining powers,
- Ignores groups that face inequality: women, minorities
- Doesn’t give a solution for inequality
- Marxist: masks inequalities, protecting the rich and powerful

Question 3

John Locke

Answer 3

• State of Nature: humans are naturally free, equal, and rational
• Everyone has Natural Rights: Life, Liberty, Property
• The role of the government is to protect these rights, not to create them
• If a government violated these natural rights, citizens have a right to Revolution
• “All men are naturally in a state of perfect freedom… and equality”

Question 4

John Locke Evaluation

Answer 4

Strengths:
- accessible to all as not grounded in religion
- Formed hte philosophical basis for modern human rights UN declaration of human rights
- Justifies Revolution against oppressive governments

Weaknesses:
- originally excluded women, non-Europeans, and non property holders -> Making it elitist in its historical form
- Locke himself was involved in colonial projects, so the theory was selectively applied
- Property rights emphasis can reinforce economic inequalities -> giving power to the elite

Question 5

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Answer 5

• State of Nature: humans are innocent, free, and equal -> SOCIETY corrupts them
• Private property created inequality and injustice
• True equality requires a social contact, where individuals surrender to the general will (collective good)
• Real freedom is obeying the laws one prescribed to oneself
• Total freedom comes though a democratic self rule
• “Man is born free, and everywhere is in chains”

Question 6

Jean-Jacques Rousseau Evaluation

Answer 6

Strengths:
- recognises social structures cause inequalities Influenced modern democratic socialism
- Challenged the legitimacy of extreme wealth

Weaknesses:
- suppresses the individual right -> tyranny of the majority
- Can justify authoritarianism if it claims to represent the general will
- Vague about how the general will is determined

Question 7

John Rawls

Answer 7

The Veil of Ignorance:
- Imagines designing a society without knowing anything about yourself or what groups you fit into, eg race, gender, class, or ability
- Rational individual would choose priciples ensuring fairness for all
Two key priciples:
1. Equal basic liberties: eg freedom of speech and religion
2. Fair equality of opportunity
- Difference principle: inequalities arranged to benefit the least advantaged

Question 8

John Rawls Evaluation

Answer 8

Strengths:
- practicle and rational
- Protected both individual freedom and economic justice
- Provides a secular moral foundation

Weaknesses:
- too idealistic, the real word politics is driven by self interest
- Libertarians (eg Nozick) argue Rawls restricts freedom by redistributing wealth unfairly -> Say it still reflects western liberal values, not truely neutral