The Illusions of Egalitarianism. By John Kekes. Ithaca, NY:
Cornell University Press, 2003. 228p. $29.95.
According to John Kekes, contemporary Anglo-American political theory
is dominated by egalitarian writers to the extent that all other voices
are either drowned out or systematically excluded. Egalitarians
“write books about each other's books, and mostly articles
about each other's articles” (p. 188), and when confronted
by those who disagree, they merely resort to “abuse” (p.
66). This egalitarian hegemony is both surprising and, where it does
not render political theory irrelevant, politically dangerous because
it is built on illusions rather than rational, defensible, arguments.
The point of this book is to reveal those illusions and the absurdities
that follow from them.