The meaning of equality has been radically altered since the Enlightenment. In the 18th century, equality acquired political and economic meanings specifically in the contexts of democracy and capitalism. Today, the context in which equality is understood and practiced is technology as our most immediate and compelling environment. Moreover, the reality of equality contradicts the ideology of equality within this technological context: The ideology of equality as pluralism and cultural and communicative equality is contradicted by the reality of group conformity and group competition on the one hand and uniformity on the other hand.
Barfield, O. (1957). Saving the appearances. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Jovanovich.
2.
Baumgartner, M.P. (1988). The moral order of a suburb. New York: Oxford University Press.
3.
Boorstin, D. (1973). The Americans: The democratic experience. New York: Random House.
4.
Canetti, E. (1978). Crowds and power (Carol Stewart, Trans.). New York: Seabury. (Original work published 1960)
5.
Dostoyevsky, F. (1961). Notes from underground (A. MacAndrew, Trans.) . New York: New American Library . (Original work published 1864)
6.
Dumont, L. (1980). Homo hierarchus (M. Sainsbury, L. Dumont, & B. Gulate, Trans.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Original work published 1966)
7.
Ellul, J. (1980). The technological system (J. Neugroschel, Trans.) . New York: Continuum. (Original work published 1977)
8.
Friedman, L. (1999). The horizontal society. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
9.
Graff, G. (1978). Literature against itself. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
10.
Hacking, I. (1992). World-making by kind-making: child abuse for example . In M. Douglas & D. Hull (Eds.), How classification works (pp. 180-238). Edinburgh, Scotland, UK: Edinburgh University Press .
11.
Hacking, I. (1996). Normal people. In D. Olson & N. Torrance (Eds.), Modes of thought (pp. 59-71). New York: Cambridge University Press.
12.
Newbigin, L. (1995). Proper confidence. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.
13.
Niebuhr, R. (1932). Moral man and immoral society. New York: Scribner's.
14.
Pole, J.R. (1993). The pursuit of equality in American history (Rev. ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press.
15.
Starr, P. (1987). The sociology of official statistics. In W. Alonso & P. Starr (Eds.), The politics of numbers (pp. 7-57). New York: Russell Sage.
16.
Tocqueville, A. (1969). Democracy in America (G. Lawrence, Trans.). Garden City, NY: Doubleday. (Original work published 1850).
17.
Todorov, T. (1987). Literature and its theorists (C. Porter, Trans.) . Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. (Original work published 1984).
18.
van den Berg, J.H. (1961). The changing nature of man (H. F. Croes, Trans.)New York: Norton.
19.
van den Berg, J.H. (1971). What is psychotherapy?Humanitas , VII, 321-370.
20.
van den Berg, J.H. (1974). Divided existence and complex society. Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University Press.
