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By Nature Equal : The Anatomy of a Western Insight / Patrick M. Brennan, John E. Coons.

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextSeries: New Forum Books ; 19Publisher: Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [1999]Copyright date: ©1999Edition: Core TextbookDescription: 1 online resource (360 p.) : 1 line illusContent type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780691059228
  • 9781400822881
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 305/.01 320.6
LOC classification:
  • HM146.C66 1999
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources: Available additional physical forms:
  • Issued also in print.
Contents:
Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- ACKNOWLEDGMENT AND APOLOGY -- FOREWORD -- INTRODUCTION: In Search of a Descriptive Human Equality -- PART I: HUMAN EQUALITY: WHAT DOES IT MEAN? -- PART II: COULD THE PHILOSOPHERS BELIEVE IN HUMAN EQUALITY? -- PART III: COULD THE CHRISTIANS BELIEVE IN HUMAN EQUALITY? -- PART IV: GOOD PERSONS AND THE COMMON GOOD -- NOTES -- INDEX
Summary: 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.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9781400822881

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- ACKNOWLEDGMENT AND APOLOGY -- FOREWORD -- INTRODUCTION: In Search of a Descriptive Human Equality -- PART I: HUMAN EQUALITY: WHAT DOES IT MEAN? -- PART II: COULD THE PHILOSOPHERS BELIEVE IN HUMAN EQUALITY? -- PART III: COULD THE CHRISTIANS BELIEVE IN HUMAN EQUALITY? -- PART IV: GOOD PERSONS AND THE COMMON GOOD -- NOTES -- INDEX

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

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.

Issued also in print.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 30. Aug 2021)