Equality, priority or what?

Abstract

This paper aims to illuminate some issues in the equality, priority, or what debate. I characterize egalitarianism and ‘prioritarianism’, respond to the view that we should care about sufficiency or compassion rather than equality or priority, discuss the leveling down objection, and illustrate the significance of the distinction between prioritarianism and egalitarianism, establishing that the former is no substitute for the latter. In addition, I respond to Bertil Tungodden’s views regarding the slogan, the leveling down objection, the Pareto principle, leximin, the principle of personal good, strict moderate egalitarianism, the Hammond equity condition, the intersection approach, and nonaggregative reasoning.