Ebook: Faces of Inequality: A Theory of Wrongful Discrimination

This book defends an original and pluralist theory of when and why discrimination wrongs people. Sophia Moreau argues that although all cases of wrongful discrimination involve a failure to treat some people as the equals of others, these failures are importantly different. The first four chapters of the book explore different ways of failing to treat people as equals: through unfairly subordinating some to others, through violating someone’s right to a particular deliberative freedom, and through denying some people access to a basic good. Chapter Five explains why these different wrongs can be seen as parts of a coherent theory of wrongful discrimination, and it presents some of the explanatory advantages of that this theory has over others. Chapter Six argues that the theory enables us to see indirect discrimination as wrongful for many of the same reasons as direct discrimination, and that both should be seen as forms of negligence. Finally Chapter Seven argues that the duty to treat others as equals is a duty held not just by the state, but also by each individual member of society.