True equality among people is impossible due to inescapable uniqueness

Evidence

Equality in people is impossible because of their different natures, life contents, and destinies. On the other hand, the equality of everybody with everybody else in an enslaved mass, such as we find in the great oriental despotisms, applies only to certain specific aspects of existence—political or economic aspects, for example—never to the total personality. … For innate qualities, personal relations, and decisive experiences inevitably make for some sort of uniqueness and irreplaceability in both the individual’s self-evaluation and his interactions with others. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 187

Categorization

• QUESTION: The claim that equality always stops short of total personality challenges democratic assumptions worth unpacking in the essay.
• XREF: connects to: The eighteenth century made abstract universal humanity sacred over particular persons — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 532; The eighteenth century equated individuality with freedom and assumed natural human equality — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 650; Christian eternal-soul doctrine unites extreme individualism with universal equality — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 693 (+16 more)

Related

• Equality must govern politics even though it is technically a fiction (similarity 0.92)
• Individual uniqueness as a value denies equality rather than grounds it (similarity 0.89)
• The eighteenth century equated individuality with freedom and assumed natural human equality (similarity 0.86)
• Liberated individuals turn from equality toward distinguishing themselves from others (similarity 0.86)
• Individuality and universal equality historically arise as twin reactions to inequality (similarity 0.85)
• Modern individuality values being this specific irreplaceable person, not mere freedom (similarity 0.85)
• Inclusive universal claims arise from within the particular (similarity 0.85)
• No institution can fully reconcile social uniformity and individual differentiation. (similarity 0.84)
• Christian eternal-soul doctrine unites extreme individualism with universal equality (similarity 0.84)
• The eighteenth century made abstract universal humanity sacred over particular persons (similarity 0.83)
• Equality achieved becomes the platform for further competition and surpassing (similarity 0.83)
• Individual diversity can be conceived as a division of labor among unique beings (similarity 0.83)
• Schleiermacher made individual uniqueness itself a moral imperative (similarity 0.82)
• Rising individuality necessarily yields belief in mankind’s ideal unity (similarity 0.82)
• Eighteenth-century rights theory assumes rights hold even for an isolated single human. (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• Every person is perceived as both unique individual and general type #corroborates (0.55) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 174