Unconditional Equals - Anne Phillips

Unconditional Equals

By: Anne Phillips

Paperback | 15 May 2023

At a Glance

Paperback


RRP $39.99

$37.25

or 4 interest-free payments of $9.31 with

 or 

Aims to ship in 5 to 10 business days

Why equality cannot be conditional on a shared human "nature" but has to be for all

For centuries, ringing declarations about all men being created equal appealed to a shared human nature as the reason to consider ourselves equals. But appeals to natural equality invited gradations of natural difference, and the ambiguity at the heart of "nature" enabled generations to write of people as equal by nature while barely noticing the exclusion of those marked as inferior by their gender, race, or class. Despite what we commonly tell ourselves, these exclusions and gradations continue today. In Unconditional Equals, political philosopher Anne Phillips challenges attempts to justify equality by reference to a shared human nature, arguing that justification turns into conditions and ends up as exclusion. Rejecting the logic of justification, she calls instead for a genuinely unconditional equality.

Drawing on political, feminist, and postcolonial theory, Unconditional Equals argues that we should understand equality not as something grounded in shared characteristics but as something people enact when they refuse to be considered inferiors. At a time when the supposedly shared belief in human equality is so patently not shared, the book makes a powerful case for seeing equality as a commitment we make to ourselves and others, and a claim we make on others when they deny us our status as equals.

More in Social Discrimination & Inequality

First Amendment Freedoms : A Reference Handbook - Michael C. LeMay
Caste : The International Bestseller - Isabel Wilkerson

RRP $26.99

$25.75

The Trading Game : A Confession - Gary Stevenson

RRP $36.99

$33.25

10%
OFF
Such a Fun Age : Longlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize - Kiley Reid
My Place - Sally Morgan

Paperback

RRP $24.99

$23.75

Unshrinking : How to Fight Fatphobia - Kate Manne

RRP $36.99

$33.25

10%
OFF
Race and Ethnic Relations - Farida Fozdar

RRP $99.95

$85.90

14%
OFF
Staying Power : The History of Black People in Britain - Peter Fryer
Big Love : Reclaiming myself, my people, my country - Brooke Blurton
Memories and Elephants : The art of casual racism - Meaghan Katrak Harris

RRP $26.99

$24.40

10%
OFF
Key Concepts in Race and Ethnicity : SAGE Key Concepts series - Nasar Meer
The Privileged Few - Clive Hamilton

RRP $36.95

$33.25

10%
OFF
Making Societies : The Historical Construction of Our World - William G. Roy