The Necessary Existence of Inequality

It occurred to me the other day that I often use the word "hierarchy" in my posts and explanations of things. Since the French Revolution, by my estimation, this term has often carried a negative connotation to it. With the spread of democratic values across the world, especially equality, the idea of a lack of equality in anything has been vilified.

Equality is, of course, a good and necessary thing, in its proper context. In the realms of social life, there is still a lot of work to obtain a fair and equal treatment of all citizens, which is in keeping with their human dignity. The problem is that, this social term, has been forced into the realm of philosophy without a change in its conceptual meaning. The consequence of making equality the center of philosophy is, since philosophy is the study of truth, that truth must conform to the social definition of equality. 

The repercussions of this are fairly evident. Philosophically speaking, all things are not equal. Nothing has the exact same perfections as another. There are gradations of being within nature; St. Thomas Aquinas even uses this a proof for the existence of God (Summa Theologiae, I, Q. 2, Art. 3, Respondeo).  Now this sounds like a complicated thing, but it's really not; in fact, I believe its the most evident of Thomas' proofs (contrary to what Aquinas would say). 

St. Thomas's idea of gradation of being stems from Aristotle's understanding of it. Aristotle begins his De Anima (A work "On the Soul") with the concept that some things have more to be known and understood about them (Book I, Part 1). This should be fairly evident to us. There is more to be known when studying humans than when studying a rock, since there are simply more qualities that a human possesses as opposed to a rock; a human does and can do many more things than a rock does.

There is, therefore, a hierarchy in nature. There are inanimate objects, such as rocks, and then there are living things. The living things have more to be known, and are therefore greater in dignity, for they bear the image of God, Who is Life, more perfectly. Even within animate things, we see a hierarchy. Man is at the top, who is able to think abstractly, meaning he bears the image of God more perfectly, since he is able to grasp concepts. This is something lacking in the animals, but an essential part of God, Who understands concepts and Himself perfectly. 

I would be negligent if I did not mention the angels, which are higher in the hierarchy of creation than man, for they, as purely spiritual beings, bear a more perfect resemblance to God. However, I say man is the highest of living things, since angels aren't physical, and therefore don't have life in the same manner as we do. Additionally, there are many other hierarchies we can reference as natural, but all of them will have the common component that God is the reference point for the highest part, since He is at the top of the hierarchy of existence, which contains all things that exist. 

We would be foolish then to see inequality in and of itself as a bad concept. It is a natural concept, for all things are not equal. Man will never be equal to God, nor will a rose be equal to man. As our Lord says of humans, "You are more valuable than many sparrows (Matthew 10:31)." We would hopefully not hesitate to protect a fellow human over a tree, if both were in danger. This is not to say the tree does not have a dignity, it simply acknowledges the fact humans have a greater dignity. God of course has the greatest dignity, which is why we must follow Him before anything else. 

Inequality can of course be evil, but only when it is used to attack the dignity of God's creation, meaning of course that God is attacked, for any dignity creation possesses is due to Him. To treat women as less than men is an attack against their dignity. A hierarchy must respect nature, not work against it. There is nothing in women, which makes them inferior to men, just as their is nothing in the color of skin making a person inferior. God made men and women equal in dignity. It is reasonable to establish hierarchies, but they must still respect the hierarchies established by God. 

From the foregoing, I hope I sufficiently explained the importance of recognizing and acknowledging inequalities. Once again, in the realm of social justice, we need to work to eliminate inequality, for its existence there is an assault on nature, but in the realm of philosophy, inequality is a simple truth. The problems arise based on where it is applied.