Social Philosophy Today

Volume 25, 2009

Gender, Diversity, and Difference

Matt Silliman
Pages 195-205

Is Equality a Moral Concept?

The characters in this epistolary exchange are from the book-length dialogue Sentience and Sensibility: A Conversation about Moral Philosophy. Manuel Kant is a student of philosophy from Cuba and Northern India, who is in the United States seeking what he calls “philosophical asylum.” His interlocutor, Harriet Taylor, is a former student of philosophy and biology, now working for the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Boston. In this exchange, they make and try to reconcile cases for and against the conceptual coherence and efficacy of equality as a moral concept, leaving it to the reader to settle the question.