Do All Persons Have Equal Moral Worth?

Uwe Steinhoff, is Associate Professor at the Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Hong Kong, and Senior Research Associate in the University of Oxford Changing Character of War Programme. He is the author of the four books Effiziente Ethik, On the Ethics of War and Terrorism, The Philosophy of Jürgen Habermas, and On the Ethics of Torture, as well as of articles on ethics, political philosophy, epistemology, and postmodernism.

• 1. What is basic equality? ; 2. Why we are moral equals ; 3. Basic equality: neither acceptable nor rejectable ; 4. Rationality, equal status, and egalitarianism ; 5. The irrelevance of the concept of worth to the debate between egalitarianism and non-egalitarianism ; 6. Equality, universality, and impartiality-how they work and why they matter ; 7. On the (re)construction and basic concepts of the morality of equal respect ; 8. Against equal respect and concern, equal rights, and egalitarian impartiality ; 9. Do liberal egalitarians really believe in equality given their commitment to equality of opportunity?

Written and edited by experts, this volume shows that not all persons have equal moral standing and that a question "Do all human beings have equal moral worth?" is important and relevant to moral philosophy. It shows that the doctrine of equal moral worth, equal moral status, equal respect and concern, and equal rights must not simply be accepted as axioms. They are in need of defense and legitimate targets of attacks.