Social egalitarianism holds that justice requires that people relate to one another as equals. To explain the content of this requirement, social egalitarians often appeal to the moral equality of persons. This leads to two very different interpretations of social egalitarianism. The first involves the specification of a conception of the moral equality of persons that is distinctive of the social egalitarian view. Social (or relational) egalitarianism can then claim that for people to relate as equals is for the relations between them to conform to this conception of their moral equality. I will argue against this type of view. Instead, I will argue that social egalitarianism should propose a distinctive conception of social equality as a purely sociological phenomenon. I will show how this conception allows us to formulate the types of normative claims social egalitarianism should make. On this picture, social egalitarianism, instead of identifying social hierarchy as a distinctive kind of wrong, makes standard normative claims about a distinctive kind of social phenomenon.

中文翻译：

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道德平等和社会等级


社会平等主义认为，正义要求人们平等地相互联系。为了解释这一要求的内容，社会平等主义者常常诉诸于人的道德平等。这导致了对社会平等主义的两种截然不同的解释。第一个涉及对人的道德平等概念的具体说明，这是社会平等主义观点的独特之处。社会（或关系）平等主义可以声称，人们平等地交往就是他们之间的关系符合道德平等的概念。我会反对这种观点。相反，我认为社会平等主义应该提出一种独特的社会平等概念，将其视为纯粹的社会学现象。我将展示这个概念如何让我们能够制定社会平等主义应该提出的规范性主张的类型。在这幅图景中，社会平等主义并没有将社会等级制度视为一种独特的错误，而是对一种独特的社会现象提出了标准的规范性主张。