The Worries Of Equality

The location of Tocqueville has always been the focus of the East and West because ofrich contents of his thought. Many scholars try to interpret him comprehensively from theperspective of politics, sociology, historiography, law and philosophy. Someone thinks he is aDemocrat but people find the noble spirit and temperament on him. Although he criticizedsocialist, people find that he opposed the system of division in the emerging society andemphasized social restriction on political system. If people regard him as an advocate onvirtue, but he supported the action of conquering Algeria and British colonialism. People can’tregard Tocqueville as a simple liberalist or conservative, historian or sociologist. This is amultiple Tocqueville! But no matter how to locate him, he is not an egalitarian. The aim ofthis thesis is to discusses Tocqueville’ s thought of Equality on the basis of such negativelocation and tries to discuss the positive significance and historical limitations of the thought,then reveals Tocqueville’ s worry about equality. According to the discussion the thesis hopesthat people can draw inspiration that where equality will lead to from the research. The thesisis divided into seven parts：The introduction includes three aspects that are the research significance, the currentresearch status of both at home and abroad and the way of the research.The first part starts with the history of Equality which is divided into four stages. Then itintroduces the representative figures’ thought of equality. According to the front, people canknow that equality which has rich connotation and vast denotation is a developing historicalcategory. Therefore, Tocqueville’s thought of Equality is just one of the long history ofequality.The second part is about the specific contents of Tocqueville’s Equality. This partintroduces his decisive prediction for democracy, the definition of the equality, the threats tothe democratic society in the appeal of equality, therefore he put forward suggestions fordemocratic society.The third part affirms the positive meaning of Tocqueville’s Equality including hisSociological Methodology which surpassed both the rationalism of the Enlightenment andcountermarch of the Conservative, and positive significance and revelation which predicted the characteristics and threats of modern society, which is a great practical significance forpeople in democratic society.The forth part is about the limitations of Tocqueville’s Equality. First, there aresomething wrong with the definition of equality, for example, the interoperability ofdemocracy and equality resulting in non-standard, equality stopping at economic fieldbringing the formal equality, political equality can easily be reduced to Utopia. Second, howdoes someone loss of faith persuade a democratic man in faith? Even Tocqueville failed toprove if the perfect combination of religious spirit and spirit of freedom in America isuniversal. Third, whether the United States was so equal or not? Tocqueville’s and Beaumont’swritings and the reality of America revealed that Tocqueville is too idealized when hedescribed America. Forth, Tocqueville’s nobility and disposition of literati made him biasedinevitably when collecting information and writing, with deep historical and class limitations.According to the above, the part wants people to be objective and impartial to Tocqueville’sEquality and not to agree with blindly.The fifth part attempts to dicuss Tocqueville’ s worry as a non-egalitarian. Fisrt pointproves Tocqueville is not an egalitarian through comparing the concern of the egalitarian withthe concern of Tocqueville. Second point dicusses Tocqueville’ s worry about equality.The conclusion of this thesis makes an appeal to the modern society on the basis of theprevious parts that people should have a Tocqueville-style concern and should grasp thedirection of Equality, that is, people in modern society should treat Equality in the way ofmoderation and tolerance.