Daniel A. Bell & Pei Wang, Just Hierarchy: Why Social Hierarchies Matter in China and the Rest of the World

Excerpt

This is a book of political philosophy with the word China in its subtitle. This way it can be read in two possible directions. One can take it as a book examining ideas and theories of political philosophy as mostly originated and practiced in China, or it can be read as a book examining some important ideas and theories of political philosophy, as well as showing their application in China. Either way, this book offers very interesting and useful reading. The authors take issue with the predominant negative understanding of inequality, and go on to show (and defend) some of the important hierarchies of the social world. They argue that some aspects of human-social life should be organized in hierarchical ways, as long as 1) such hierarchies will increase human welfare and will benefit those on the lower ranking of the respective hierarchies, and 2) there are rules that ensure people on the different levels of the hierarchy can switch roles. They dwell on five areas of our human-social life, i.e. the family (relations between intimates), politics (relations between citizens and the governing class/elite), relations between states, relations between people and animals, and relations between people and machines. …