Equality and the Morality of Social Status

Abstract

This dissertation develops an account of the concept of social status and defends an egalitarian principle concerning a distinctive kind of social status, which I call public social status. Roughly put, one’s public social status is the relative excellence that other members of society believe that one has in comparison to other members. Inequalities of public social status, I argue, amount to a profound condition of moral unfreedom for the low status. The heart of the dissertation consists of the development and defense of the principle of equal public social status. Subsequent chapters explore the relationship between that principle and other substantive normative issues in political philosophy. Topics discussed include the justification of democratic institutions, the grounds of democratic authority, and the implications of the principle of equal public social status for the organization of social cooperation and distributive justice.