A Comparative Study Of Equality Ideology Between G.A. Cohen And John Rawls

Equality has always been one of the core values of political philosophy, which with freedom constitutes the most basic political value of human civilization. Since Rawls‘ “Theory of Justice” was published, equality has become a worldwide topic of political philosophy. From the perspective of the theoretical scope of contemporary foreign Marxist, the scholar who is most concerned about equality and makes a thorough study of equality is the professor of political philosophy at the University of Oxford, G. A. Cohen. Making a comparative study between G. A. Cohen’s socialism equality theory and Rawls’ neo-liberal equality ideology will help us to clarify the same and difference between the two, and deepen the understanding of equality theory and practice. So that to provide a theoretical reference to the build of our country’s socialist core values, especially the concept of equality.Applying text research methods and methods of unifying the logic and history, using the classical paradigm of comparative study, this thesis summarizes the philosophical basis and main content of the equality ideology of G. A. Cohen and Rawls, and makes a comparative study. Then puts forward the significance and inspiration. The paper consists of three parts: In the first part, this thesis elaborates the philosophical basis and theory content of G. A. Cohen and Rawls’ equality ideology, then summarizes the theoretical characteristics of them: egalitarian socialism and egalitarian liberalism, and make simple comments. In the second part, on the basis of elaboration, combined with historical background and life experience of the two scholar, this thesis analyzes the reasons for the same and differences arising and make a comparative study, reveal the differences and similarities between the two theories from aspect of humanistic feelings, limitation, methods, perspective, theoretical level and orders of values. In the third part, firstly, this thesis elaborates some awareness of equality, which includes the relationship between equality and Chinese traditional thought “harmony in diversity”, equality is the primary values of socialism, and social historic natures, class natures, and practicality of equality. Secondly, according to the results of comparative study, this thesis proposes “four unification” about constructing socialist equality values: the unification of logical method and dialectical thinking, macroscopic ethics and microscopic moral, formal equality and essential equality, socialist equality and freedom. Finally, this thesis provides that we can promote the progress of our country’s equality theory and practice by multiple reference in the field of theory and multi-pronged action in the field of practice.The innovation points and characteristics of this thesis are shown as follows:Firstly, compared with similar studies, this thesis is more comprehensive and systematical. The studies about G. A. Cohen and Rawls’ own equality ideology are comprehensive, but comparative research between them is deficient, this thesis makes a supplement for that. Secondly, this thesis puts forward the thought of “harmony in diversity” is proper meaning of equality, and combined with the results of the comparative study elaborates the “four unification”, to explore the “harmony of differences” in socialist concept of equality, and provides reference for the realization of equality in our country.