Valuing Distributive Equality

Abstract

Distributive equality can be valued in different ways, which can be rendered as definitions of ways to value distributive equality. Those definitions can be used to investigate the value, if any, that distributive equality is held to have by particular principles which regulate distributive shares. Distributive equality can be valued as a matter of justice in two different ways; it can be an intended consequence of a principle of justice and it can be among the grounds for a principle of justice. The definitions of those two ways of valuing distributive equality can be used to investigate the value, if any, that distributive equality is held to have by Rawls’s interpretation of the second principle of justice. Distributive equality can be valued for reasons relating to social relations rather than justice. When distributive equality is valued for reasons relating to social relations, a definition of that way of valuing distributive equality can be specified by reference to the reasons provided. When distributive equality is valued for reasons relating to social relations, the relevance and implications of that way of valuing distributive equality with regard to the prior question of how society should be organized can be investigated by reference to the reasons provided.