Great IdeasLiving together
Equality
In what ways people are equal, and what follows from it.
The question
In what ways are people equal? And what follows from it for laws, families and governments?
How the books answer
Oldest first. Each stop is our own short summary of what the author argued; follow the link to the rung for the whole lesson.
c. 340–322 BC
Aristotle, Politics and The Athenian Constitution
Aristotle says justice means treating equals equally and unequals unequally, so everything depends on who counts as equal. He reports that democrats think free birth makes people equal, while oligarchs think wealth makes them unequal. He also held that some people are slaves by nature, a view that later thinkers rejected.
1651
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
Hobbes argues that nature made people roughly equal in body and mind. Even the weakest can kill the strongest by trickery or by joining with others. This equality, he says, breeds fear and rivalry, which is why people need a government.
1689
John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration and the Second Treatise of Civil Government
Locke holds that in the state of nature all people are equal and independent, with no one born to rule another. Political power can therefore rest only on consent. His argument became one of the foundations for later talk of equal rights.
“Men being, as has been said, by nature all free, equal, and independent, no one can be put out of this estate and subjected to the political power of another without his own consent…”
1755
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, A Discourse on the Origin of Inequality and A Discourse on Political Economy
Rousseau separates natural inequality, such as strength or age, from inequality that society creates, such as wealth and rank. He traces the second kind to the rise of private property. His story of how it began is one of the most famous openings in political writing.
“The first man who, having enclosed a piece of ground, bethought himself of saying This is mine, and found people simple enough to believe him, was the real founder of civil society.”
the Declaration of Independence, 1776
The American founders, The Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution of the United States
The Declaration of Independence states that all men are created equal and given rights by their Creator. Its signers did not end slavery, and that gap was argued over from the start. Later Americans, including those who worked to end slavery and to win votes for women, appealed to these same words.
1835–1840
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America
Visiting the United States, Tocqueville is struck most by the equality of conditions: no nobles, and people in every rank meeting as equals. He thinks equality is spreading everywhere. He admires much of it, but warns that a love of equality can sometimes outweigh a love of liberty.
“Amongst the novel objects that attracted my attention during my stay in the United States, nothing struck me more forcibly than the general equality of conditions.”
1879–1892
Henrik Ibsen, A Doll's House
In A Doll's House, Nora's husband treats her like a pet. When she finally sees it, she leaves to learn who she is. Ibsen's play started arguments across Europe about equality in marriage, and he leaves the audience to judge.
“I think that before all else I am a human being, just as much as you are—or at least I will try to become one.”
1945
George Orwell, Animal Farm
In Orwell's fable, farm animals overthrow their farmer in the name of equality. Little by little the pigs take power, change the rules and live like the old masters. Orwell shows how the words of equality can be twisted by those who want power.
For young readers
Equal means the same in some important way. You and your friends may not be equally tall or equally fast, but you are equally people, and you each deserve to be treated fairly.
In a race, everyone starts at the same line: that's equal. But should the youngest kid get a head start? People argue about which kinds of equality matter most, and the great books argue too.
Talk about it
- In what ways are you and your best friend different? In what ways are you equal?
- Is it fair to treat everyone exactly the same? When might it not be?
- The Declaration said all men are created equal, but slavery went on. How did later people use those words?
- In Animal Farm the pigs change the rules. Why is it important that rules apply to everyone?
Where else on the site
- The Ideas of the Declaration
- Natural Rights and the Social Contract
- Seneca Falls and Women's Rights
- The Reconstruction Amendments
- Measuring Income Inequality
- Majority Rule and Minority Rights
Every rung tagged with this idea:
These pages are our own short synthesis, written for families. They were inspired by Mortimer J. Adler's Syntopicon, the index of great ideas in volumes 1 and 2 of Great Books of the Western World, but the questions, summaries and groupings are ours, not the Syntopicon's. Short excerpts come from public-domain translations, credited where they appear.