“Is it true that all people are the same? What about differences such as between man and woman, boss and servant?”
Thank you, Agar Mayor Gai-Makoon, for a timely and timeless question.
In my opinion, people are not the same. First, let’s consider differences between man and woman, boss and servant. I’ll add some other differences, too.
We reserve the word “male” for people with testes, and the word “female” for people with ovaries. The words are socially constructed, but the reproductive organs themselves are significant. Biology determines what we can do. For example, females can grow and give birth to humans and produce life-sustaining milk from their breasts. Males cannot. Biology lends us unequal powers!
There is a sense in which social positions determine what we can do. The teacher faces the students from a podium; students face the teacher. It’s clear who is in charge. Employees report to employers. Sergeants report to lieutenants. There is a dichotomy in these examples, a sense in which there are two types of people. One type is in charge. There’s a hierarchy. Students listen to the teacher who listens to the department’s Chair who listens to the Dean who listens to the President of the school who listens to some kind of financial or accreditation board. So, our positions in society also differentiate us by lending us unequal powers and limitations.
Allow me to add another difference. Some people frequently lie. Assume you value honesty. For you, then, liars are less valuable than people with integrity. So, people are not equal because some are more valuable than others.
Do you know the fable of the hare and the tortoise? They raced. The tortoise won. How? The hare took a nap during the race! Rabbits are biologically designed to be much faster than turtles. However, a rabbit’s laziness or a turtle’s hard work changes everything. The quantity and quality of our work undermine equality.
In what way are we equal? We are all Homo sapiens. It’s genetic! Biology makes all of us members of the same species. We will all die, and our mortality is caused by our shared genes. We are all the same kind of thing.
If you think there is a way in which no person should be treated, then that applies to you, me, and all humans. Do you think people deserve respect out of principle? This would mean all people deserve respect including your (human) enemies. Notice that whether all people deserve equal request is a separate issue. If you value a virtue, such as honesty, that’s a way for you to differentiate someone’s worth. Assuming honesty is valuable and honest people are more valuable than liars, you have grounds for respecting honest people more than liars.
In my opinion, we are not perfectly equal. If it were true that people are exactly the same, then it would be false that anyone of us is special. Another thing we have in common is that we are all unique. That’s possible because of our inequalities!
What do you think? Are all humans equal? Let us know in the comments.
If you have a question for the Armchair Philosophers, don’t hesitate to get in touch. You can find us on Twitter (@armchair_o) or fill in this form.
Be sure to check out our podcast!
If you like what we do, you can support us by buying us a coffee!
Image: Eternal Dance, a sculpture by Vladimir Goryachev (2002), located at Santa Monica College. Photographed in 2010 by Sahar Joakim.
I teach philosophy at St. Louis Community College, Meramec. I have an associate's, bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree in philosophy. I love thinking about knowledge (the field called "epistemology") and ethics (especially taking interest in convincing people to do the right thing for the right reason). My heroes include Socrates and Kant.
Thanks alot! And if there is one important thing I have got from this, it is our uniqueness. We are all important as different personalities or whoever.