Liberty, Equality, and Plurality

Liberty and equality are often thought of as inseparable ideals; yet what furthers one often diminishes the other, as is seen when colleges seek to enact “hate speech codes” that abridge free expression in the interest of protecting minorities. This collection of orginal articles presents arguments in the ongoing debate among social and political philosophers regarding the nature and relationship of liberty and equality and considers their potential conflict in a pluralistic society.

Liberty, Equality, and Plurality offers new approaches to a set of longstanding concerns in social ethics and legal theory by addressing issues of conceptualization, of institutional and legal structure, and of practical application to multicultural cases. The first group of articles considers the compatibility of liberty and equality and includes discussion of issues such as the redistribution of wealth and the relationship of freedom to responsibility. The second section examines the application of law and the limits of liberty, using an applied ethics approach to discuss cases dealing with taxation and poverty, freedom of speech, and medical choices like assisted suicide. The final section looks at equality and the clash of cultures by discussing issues like tolerance, hate speech, and the nexus of religious freedom and medical refusal.

The contributors are all renowned specialists in social and legal philosophy, jurisprudence, and political science, and represent a wide range of socio-political and jurisprudential perspectives. By interweaving the Lockean and Rousseauian strands of democratic thought, they seek ways by which we might arrive at a just society.