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Is there any such thing as human equality?

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1. Large groups of persons classified according to physical traits having no known relation to inborn mental and moral capacities--traits capacities—traits such as race and gender-are gender—are to be presumed virtually equal in such capacities and thus in essential human worth. Why? Because differences in opportunity and incentive suffice-for suffice—for all anyone has shown to the contrary--to contrary—to explain differences in achievement, and because the really drastic differences in achievement are all between individuals, regardless of race or gender.

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3. Whatever the differences of worth between normal human adults, it is impractical to try to take account of all of them either socially or politically.On how many different dimensions--of dimensions—of skill, intelligence, virtue, potentially for transcending habits, and so on--can on—can people be compared? And who is competent to judge the relative importance of these different dimensions or the status of different ever-changing individuals with respect to any of them? Certainly, parentage is not a reliable guide to individual gifts and merits, and intelligence tests are notoriously often misleading.

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