The idea of equality reconsidered

Abstract

In his well-known article ‘The Idea of Equality’,¹ Professor Bernard Williams attacks as ‘irrational’ a society in which either medical care is distributed on grounds which include the wealth of the recipient or access to a public school education — for his and my argument assumed to be a superior kind of education — is distributed on grounds which include the wealth of the parents of pupils of secondary school age. I shall try to show that because Williams does not adequately state the principles upon which he bases his arguments, he is apparently enabled to draw substantial social conclusions from purely logical premises or from what Williams himself calls ‘necessary’ truths. And I shall try to show that when his principles are more clearly stated, they do not, by themselves, enable us to draw any conclusions whatsoever about the actual structure of any fair society where medical treatment and education need to be financed.