For example, maybe, according to you, you’re an “all men are created equal” type. That is, you treat all men equally. Maybe you even write a fancy document about this, and this document gets involved in the founding of a country, or something.
There’s a thing philosophy can do, here, which is to notice that you still own slaves. Including: male slaves. And it can do that whole “implication” thing, about how, Socrates is a man, you treat all men equally, therefore you treat Socrates equally, except oh wait, you don’t, he’s your slave.
Charles Mills points out another tension in the Declaration of Independence: about 900 words after ‘all men are created equal’, there’s a sentence about ‘merciless Indian Savages’.
Great post!
Charles Mills points out another tension in the Declaration of Independence: about 900 words after ‘all men are created equal’, there’s a sentence about ‘merciless Indian Savages’.