Conatus: REVISED EDITION by Tom Wallace - HTML preview

C O N A T U S

political, because of the laws and conventions of society. Society tries to address the ‘natural inequality’ issue through compassion for those who are less able. The ‘political inequality’ is the other aspect that society must address, the issue of fair shares. If we are free then we have the opportunity to better ourselves any way we wish. If society does not restrict this freedom then we have what is known as ‘equality of opportunity’. For some, equality of opportunity is still not enough. They might argue, for instance, that since we are all essentially owners of the land then we all have the right to the proceeds of land use.

So there’s a natural inequality here, but there is a cut-off point, if you will, where natural assets cross over into acquired assets. What about fitness for work, education, learning a craft or an art? These seem to be in a hinterland between being free gifts of nature and skills acquired through learning, practice and hard work. They start to become personal possessions, and not amenable to exchange. Meanwhile, the things that we considered above — things found, manufactured, or land that we have worked on — might be the most obvious candidates for distribution.

We would normally say that we want fairness in matters concerning human societies and the distribution of goods. There isn’t a basis for any kind of distribution or re-distribution, apart from this notion of fairness, which we take to be a value — indeed a constitutional value. So it is necessary to turn to morality to try to find a starting point.

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