Bernard Williams The Idea Of Equality Analysis

1247 Words3 Pages

Friedell
Political Theory
Professor Glyn Morgan
Final Essay
4/29/14

Question: What is Bernard Williams “Idea of Equality”? Is he right? (Option #3)

Equality: it’s one of the elementary concepts that was created in the eighteenth century. The basic idea when Thomas Jefferson and the rest of the Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, was that “all men are created equal” (US 1776). In his book, Problems of the Self, Bernard Williams, in the chapter titled The Idea of Equality, claims that “the aim is that of securing a state of affairs in which men are treated as equal beings which they in fact already are, but are not already treated as being” (page 230). It is important to remember that whenever the word “men” is used in philosophy, it isn’t referring to the male gender; it is actually referring to all people. To put Bernard Williams’ philosophy into simpler terms, he believes that all people were created as equals and, therefore, they should be treated as such. However, he states that they are not actually treated equally — even though they should be. And Williams says that has to change.
The philosopher begins his chapter on equality by discussing common humanity. He starts by saying that there are some, such as “egalitarians”, who believe that equality in men exists simply because of “their being men: it is their common humanity that constitutes their equality” (The Idea of Equality, page 230). As Williams respectfully disagrees with the egalitarianism idea of equality, his own idea of equality really starts to unfold. I believe Williams is right when he says on page 238 that when we talk about the equality of men (and, again, that is all people) from “the human point of view,” it might ...

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...istributing a good based on who has the most money or who comes from a better background. While most, if not all, of what Williams had to say about his idea of equality made perfect sense from a moral point of view. However, in reality, it’s going to be very difficult for healthcare, per se, to be distributed solely on who is in need of it (who is ill), if that person doesn’t have the funds. Morally, just like I said, it makes perfect sense, but in reality doctors need to make a living and if they’re just handing out healthcare left and right based on who is in need of it, what’s the point?
With all that Williams has talked about, it’s not a question that equality is a complicated topic to discuss; it’s a subject that has to be discussed in the full length that Bernard Williams did in this chapter in order to be able to understand and grasp its concept with clarity.

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