What's the Point of Equality?
Equality is one of the most problematic and even dangerous notions in politics, yet it retains a particular appeal and is well worth exploring. Gottlob Frege, the founder of modern mathematical logic, asked a basic question at the beginning of his work Sense and Reference : “ Equality gives rise to challenging questions which are not altogether easy to answer. Is it a relation? A relation between objects, or between names or signs of objects? ” Frege favoured the latter; that equality is a relation between names or signs of objects rather than between things or beings as a whole. In this way, we can see equality occurring between aspects of things rather than the things themselves. After all, if an object or being (a human being for example) is absolutely equal with another, then it would be the same thing. It’s like Wittgenstein said in his Tractatus: " Roughly speaking: to say of two things that they are identical is nonsense, and to say of one thing that it is...