Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    By Nature Equal: The Anatomy of a Western Insight
    By Nature Equal: The Anatomy of a Western Insight
    By Nature Equal: The Anatomy of a Western Insight
    Ebook385 pages10 hours

    By Nature Equal: The Anatomy of a Western Insight

    By John E. Coons and Patrick M. Brennan

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    What do we mean when we refer to people as being equal by nature? In the first book devoted to human equality as a fact rather than as a social goal or a legal claim, John Coons and Patrick Brennan argue that even if people possess unequal talents or are born into unequal circumstances, all may still be equal if it is true that human nature provides them the same access to moral self-perfection. Plausibly, in the authors' view, such access stems from the power of individuals to achieve goodness simply by doing the best they can to discover and perform correct actions. If people enjoy the same degree of natural capacity to try, all of us are offered the same opportunities for moral self-fulfillment. To believe this is to believe in equality.


    This truly interdisciplinary work not only proposes the authors' own rationale but also provides an effective deconstruction of several other contemporary theories of equality, while it engages historical, philosophical, and Christian accounts as well. Furthermore, by divorcing the "best" from the "brightest," it shows how descriptive equality acquires practical significance. Among other accomplishments, By Nature Equal offers communitarians a core principle that has until now eluded them, rescues human dignity from the hierarchy of intellect, identifies racism in a new way, and shows how justice can be freshly grounded in the conviction that every rational person has the same capacity for moral excellence.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPrinceton University Press
    Release dateMar 29, 1999
    ISBN9781400822881
    By Nature Equal: The Anatomy of a Western Insight
    Author

    John E. Coons

    Enter the Author Bio(s) here.

    Read more from John E. Coons

    Related to By Nature Equal

    Titles in the series (21)

    View More
    View More

    Related ebooks

    Philosophy For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Myth of Rationality

      Mar 17, 2021

      Many years ago, I worked as a counsellor on a program that provided support to the families of sex offenders. In practice, that usually meant working with the wives of men convicted of child sexual offences. You might expect that my job would have co

      8 min read

    • Article

      This Essentially Meaningless Conflict

      Sep 22, 2017

      MARILYNNE ROBINSON’S accomplishments are impressive by any standard: she has won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and the National Humanities Medal, among other honors. But perhaps a better measure o

      8 min read

    • Article

      Steven Pinker Argues That Critical Thinking Leads To Progress In ‘Rationality’

      Oct 28, 2021

      In his latest book “Rationality,” cognitive scientist Steven Pinker extols the power of critical thinking to propel society forward.

      2 min read

    • Article

      Varieties of Experience

      Sep 1, 2020

      THERE IS A PUZZLE at the heart of my academic work. I am an anthropologist, and among other things, I study the voices (or auditory hallucinations) of people in different countries who have schizophrenia. Their voices are clearly shaped by local cult

      4 min read

    • Article

      A Crisis Of Truths

      Jan 27, 2022

      A Crisis Of Truths
      9 min read

    • Article

      We Are Already Indivisible

      Jul 6, 2021

      We Are Already Indivisible
      3 min read

    • Article

      Think Yourself Better: 10 Rules Of Philosophy To Live By

      Feb 4, 2023

      The thing that separates human beings from other animals is our extraordinary capacity for complex, abstract thought. This is what has given rise to our diverse cultures, our scientific achievements, our ability to envisage the future and, hopefully,

      9 min read

    • Article

      We Need To Reframe The Way We Thinkabout “Free Speech”

      Jun 29, 2023

      NO IDEA IS MORE LOATHED TODAY, especially on the Right (how times change), than censorship. Nothing is worse, we are told, than being “censorious”, and seeking to end “vigorous debate” in the “marketplace of ideas”. But what exactly ensures that a de

      11 min read

    • Article

      The Return Of The Pagans

      Dec 25, 2023

      The Return Of The Pagans
      7 min read

    • Article

      Steven Pinker Has His Reasons

      Nov 17, 2021

      A few years ago, at the Princeton Club in Manhattan, I chanced on a memorable chat with the Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker. His spouse, the philosopher Rebecca Goldstein, with whom he was tagging along, had been invited onto a panel to discuss th

      19 min read

    • Article

      Two Complementary Knowledge Systems

      Apr 29, 2023

      Throughout history, humanity has depended on two basic knowledge systems: science and religion. These two sources of knowledge provide the basic organising principles by which individuals, communities and institutions function and evolve. However, ma

      2 min read

    • Article

      Herbert Spencer’s Principle of Equal Freedom: Is It Well Grounded?

      Sep 1, 2020

      During the mid-to late nineteenth century, Herbert Spencer was the most widely read philosopher in the world. A large part of his appeal was owing to his ambition of providing a complete and comprehensive account of human reality based on scientific

      38 min read

    • Article

      Reason, Faith, And The Struggle For Western Civilization

      Jul 1, 2020

      By Samuel Gregg Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 2019. Pp. xv, 192. $28 hardcover. Ongoing conflict with and within the Middle East has spawned a significant literature regarding the “clash of civilizations” between Western liberal democracies and Islamic

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Choice Is Ours

      Mar 4, 2024

      In December 1866, mathematician Mary Boole wrote to Charles Darwin: Do you consider the holding of your Theory of Natural Selection, in its fullest & most unreserved sense, to be inconsistent,—I do not say with any particular scheme of Theological do

      3 min read

    • Article

      Reviews / Books

      Feb 23, 2023

      This new discussion of the nature and origin of consciousness might be completely wrong, says Charles Foster, but it’s still a brilliant and essential book The Invention of Consciousness Nicholas Humphrey Oxford University Press 2022 Hb, 256pp, £16.9

      11 min read

    • Article

      Duty And Loyalty

      Mar 28, 2019

      Duty And Loyalty
      5 min read

    • Article

      AI As A Legal Person

      Jun 5, 2023

      AI As A Legal Person
      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for By Nature Equal

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      By Nature Equal - John E. Coons

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1