On Establishment and Affection of Western Idea of Equality
Abstract
As the basic value tropism and principle for construction of ideal society, the equality ideology has a long standing in human history. Western idea of equality was born of ancient Greek. At that time, the idea of equality was proposed originally by the Sophists according to the natural law. The meaning of equality was also described by the Stoic school from the point of view of natural law. In ancient Rome the intelligent Roman inherited the legal thought of ancient Greek with a definite object, which famous jurist Cicero has constructed a set of the rational and abundant meanings natural law thought of view of equality. The Roman law was the outcome of highly developed slavery economy of Rome and it has been the indispensable condition for popularization of idea of equality. The thought in the period of the Renaissance which were individualism, humanism , publicizing the idea of equality between the sexes and human equality established the foundation for idea of equality afterwards. During the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries were the period of the set-up and improvement of the western idea of equality. In this period, there were many thinkers coming forth, including Hobbes who discussed the equality in natural state; Locke who claimed that everyone was endowed with equality indeed; Montesquieu who explained the equality from the angle of democratic politics; Voltaire who claimed that “freedom for everyone, equality for everyone”; Rousseau who was the most important defender of equal rights. Finally, the idea of equality became the Principle of “equality of all people under law” that has been established as a basic principle of the law of the bourgeoisie and has been determined by the form of constitutional. For example, the principle of equality of American Constitution is the best proof. Till then, the idea of equality has been established basically in western and influenced deeply to the western.
Key words: Conception of Equality; Origination; Popularization; Establishment; Influence