Colin McIntyre
Dr. Staiger
January 31, 2002
Homework #3
The recent discussions on the work’s of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke have illuminated a connection between the name of our course and the lack/abundance of society that these men speak of. We hear ideas that say society does not exist in a state of nature, and we learn that in a state of nature everyone is equal. This is the consensus of their ideas. Society becomes existent when a body rises above this common equality to set forth order and justice; so much for our hopes of equality. If society is brought about by inequality and we aim to make everyone equal, we can only regress towards chaos and absence of order. These systems of domination and modes of inequality we speak of are simply society. Society can not and will not be with out them. There must be inequality to separate the ruler from the ruled. Consequently, through this inequality, the ruled are dominated. Whether it is a forced domination or an excepted domination need not matter. If we were to all be equal, where would our rule be? It would be with the society we leave behind in our efforts towards equality. Civilization is a result of our inequalities. We may not want to believe that we are not equal, but the fact is we are a part of civilization and civilization results from said inequalities. There will always be factors in society that separate us. And because these factors are part of society the only way to create equality is to remove society.