EQUALITY SELECTED READINGS LOUIS P. POJMAN —_— ROBERT WESTMORELANDOxtond Universi Pres Dal Fisence Tagg Keg Ieabul "Ken Kosls Lumpur Malas Saki Sttha Taiyo Tare Copstighs © 1997 by Oslin University Pres, te 15% Meow Acct, New Vek, New ack IH Al igs ser No prt of hs publican my he Aga Incas electri. melanin sve, ath er pos On Unive Tirary of Congressia Publication Data Equal: sede ain ‘Westnrcli em, foctdes biographies referees sn, (051981028059 fact ager 1. Eqs. Pj ak PH, Westman Ro soso 9-26 Priming as digih:1 35 7-9 8 6 42 Pred nthe Unt Sas of America Dedicated to our wives, Trudy and JoanPreface though equality is paramount concept in contemporary political philosophy, there has never been a comprehensive anthology on the subject. The last small anthologies were Roland Pennock and Jotin Chapman's Nomas 1X: Equality (1967) and Hugo Bedau's Justice and Equality (1971). ‘These useful volumes were compiled before John Rawls's Theory of Justice and the debate over Which isthe most cogent version of egalitarianism that followed from Rawls’ work. In attempting to be comprehensive we have divided our work into five overlapping parts, in- cluding both classic (Part 1) and contemporary discussions of equafty (he rest of the work, but es pecially Part V). We have endeavored to examine the logic of the concept of equality, first with Aristlle’s analysis and with three readings in Part HI. In Part HT we include six influential read ings on equality that were written during the period from 1950 to the ealy 1970s. These articles involve the external debate between egalitarianism and inegalitaranism, Part IV includes four im portant readings on Equal Opportunity, a concept widely embraced by contemporary society, but ‘ypically not carefully explained. In Part V we take up the contemporary discussion that began with ‘he publication of Rawls's Theory of Justice (1971) involving both the extemal debate over whether Equality is an important moral notion and the internal debate between egaitaians as o which ver sion of epaitarian distributive justice isthe most adequate. Although this is philosophical work sand not one in literature, we think that Kun Vonnegul's satirical show story “Harrison Bergeron” 's worthy of inclusion. 1 ilustrates the fears many people have with extreme forms of egalitarian ism and should provoke serious discussion of egalitarian policy, ‘We have sought tobe fair tothe various sides of the argument, but inevitably some ideas get xl some less attention than the reader may desite, The problem of selection is dif cluded most of the afiles, plus a number that did not make it into the final cut from & seminar in Political Philosophy on Equality at the University of Mississippi during the spring se- ester of 1995, Discussing the articles with the students in that course greatly enabled uc to sort ‘out the articles according to thee cogency, accessibility and ability to stimulate discussion, Richard Ameson, Sterling Harwood and Larry Temkin provided good advice along the way. We hope that we have al least provided representations of the salient argumenis in the current debate and that this work will stimulate more research and analysis ofthe competing theories. If that cause is ad~ vanced, we will be gratified Louis P. Pojman, United States Military Academy Robert Wesimoreland, University of Mississippi June 28, 1995