Equality of Opportunity and the Presumption of Equality

Zoltan Miklosi*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to Book/Report typesChapterpeer-review

Abstract (may include machine translation)

The ideal of equality of opportunity is often understood as a principle of fair competition for inherently unequal outcomes, being concerned only with the fairness of the processes through which different people may gain unequal rewards but not with the resulting unequal outcomes themselves. However, two of the philosophically most influential account of equality of opportunity, those of John Rawls and the more recent theory of Thomas Scanlon, belie that understanding. Scanlon, in particular, argues that equality of opportunity ought to be understood to include a requirement of institutional justification that constrains the range of permissible social positions for which people compete to begin with. This chapter argues that on the most plausible construal, this institutional justification includes a defeasible but important presumption against unequal outcomes as well, complementing the demands that apply to the process of competition. At the same time, both Rawls and Scanlon insist that the ideal of equality of opportunity applies only among people who stand in some social or institutional relationship with one another. For Rawls, this relationship is that of being subject to the same “basic structure,” involving the main social, economic, and political institutions as forming a coherent system. Scanlon’s view appears to allow a broader range of social relationships to trigger the requirements of equality of opportunity. This chapter suggests that the reasons that he allows to form the basis of an objection to unequal outcomes within a national economy are relevant more broadly, any time people are in competition for the same pool of scarce resources. Questions about the scope of the ideal of equality of opportunity, including the viability of an account that is broader than Scanlon’s but avoids the apparent absurdity that inequality is presumptively unfair even between people. “Millennia and galaxies away” is one of the most important tasks of future philosophical analysis in this field.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationHandbook of Equality of Opportunity
EditorsM Sardoč
PublisherSpringer International Publishing
Pages213-232
Number of pages20
ISBN (Electronic)9783031558979
ISBN (Print)9783031558962
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jan 2024

Keywords

  • Equality of opportunity
  • Presumption of equality
  • Procedural fairness
  • Substantive opportunity
  • The scope of equality

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