The Role of the Concept of Equality in Political Philosophies of Thomas Hobbes and John Rawls

Abstract

The paper will deal with the role played by the concept of equality in the theories of Thomas Hobbes and John Rawls about the legitimation of political power and the justice of social institutions, respectively. On one level of analysis, the concept of equality in the thought of these two authors figures with completely different meanings: in Hobbes’ argument, the assertion of equality has a descriptive, factual status, rather than a normative one – it describes an essential aspect of the preconditions of the social contract; while in Rawls’ theory, equality is the normative principle, which is the first consequence of the hypothetical situation of the social contract. This disparity notwithstanding, I will argue that the concept of equality has much more similar roles in these two conceptions. Specifically, the role of the assertion of equality in the Hobbesian schema is analogous to the role played by the veil of ignorance in the Rawlsian one.