What we talk about when we talk about equality

Equality seems like a simple enough notion. It is about everybody having the same amount of whatever resources we care about. But is it really that simple? The American philosopher Larry Temkin tells us in an interview about his take on equality and on how this can be used when trying to achieve equality in society.

Larry has spent most of his research career working on the subject of equality. Although he was personally concerned about inequalities, it wasn't until he met the British philosopher Derek Parfit as a student, that he began thinking of equality as a research subject. Derek was at the time working on the manuscript for what would later become the book Reasons and Persons (1984), and while giving him a comment on this manuscript, Larry discovered that there are several different natures of equality, and depending on which you chose the level of equality in a society shifts.

In May, Larry Temkin came to visit our research seminar, talking about "Equality as Comparative Fairness". He then presented his thoughts on equality as something that has to do with our sense of fairness between people. Inequalities are everywhere, but far from all of them are morally significant. Using the concept of fairness we can more easily decide when an inequality is actually wrong and when we should try doing something about it.

There are several different kinds of equality, and in practice we also need to take into account other values that people feel are important, like justice or efficiency. This is not only something we need to do, but also something we should do in order to be able to achieve the result we actually wish for.

In an interview made after the seminar, Larry tells us about his thoughts on equality and about how his research has been used in practice to achieve a more equal distribution of healthcare. The interview is a mix of Swedish and English. To the interview on MixCloud.

Here you can see Larry talk at the seminar "Equality as Comparative Fairness".