An argument for moral equality
Looked at from the point of view of social harmony or peace, perfectibility of society means justice and equality as both fact and value. Defined negatively, it implies the absence of injustice and inequality. Societies have seen different kinds of inequalities. Some are now part of history but some have become more pronounced. They include inequalities created on the basis of both ascription and achievement. People are unequal with respect to social status, credentials and income. There is also a link between different forms of inequalities. We have to fight against all types of inequalities as well as all forms of legitimations of any type of inequality. The world has to change. In this context, the following quote from Durkheim (1957, 220) is worth pondering:
However, we see that this feeling of human sympathy only comes to have this depth in some rare forms of consciousness, the highest; consciousness remain as a rule too feeble to go the whole way in their logical development. We have not yet reached the day when man can love all his fellow-creatures as brothers, whatever their faculties, their intellect or their moral values. Nor has man reached the stage when he has shed his egotism so successfully that it is no longer necessary to put a tentative price on merit (a price likely to decline), with the purpose of stimulating it (the merit) and of keeping the price steady. This is what makes a complete leveling to equal values impossible to-day. On the other hand, it is certain that the depth of feeling of human fraternity will go on increasing, and that the best amongst men are capable of working without getting an exact recompense for their pains and their services. This is how it comes about that we go on trying to soften and tone down the effects of a distributive and commutative justice which are two strictly reckoned, which, that is, in reality remain unachieved. |
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