Equality of All

          Equality is the most defensible theory of goodness and intrinsic value because it plays a role in the other theories that connects them together. Equality acts like an overarching theme that strengthens each theory:  well-being, desert, narrative flow, beauty, and ecosystems.

         Equality of well-being could be understood as equally distributing an amount of well-being amongst everyone and allowing them the capacity to heighten their individual well-being depending on there choices. This was seen in class with the two different charts of 10 people. One chart showed each of the 10 people with an equal distributed amount of well-being. The other chart showed 9 of those 10 people with an equal amount of well-being and then 1 person with an amount that is higher than that of the 9 other people. Even though the second chart had a higher amount of total well-being in comparison to the first chart, the first chart distributed the well-being that they had equally.  As a result the first chart can be viewed as a better/good group thus making equality an intrinsic value in connection to the theory of well-being.  

       Equality of desert would work similarly in that it would be understood as everyone equally deserving of happiness. For an example, if you have a nun and a prisoner. Both deserve an equal amount of happiness and according to equality of well-being, both would be given an equal amount of well-being.  One might argue and say that the nun is in a better environment to obtain happiness because she worked to deserve it. I would reply that the nun made decisions that put her in a more comfortable position to obtain her amount of happiness under circumstances convenient for her, but that does not mean the prisoner cannot obtain the same amount of happiness as the nun while in prison.

       Equality in narrative flow would be understood as the value of having an equally steady distribution of happiness throughout one’s lifespan. For instance, the linear graph example from class was of an individual having a steady increase of happiness starting from birth and ending at death.  If that person had to choose between living life with the increase and living life with a steady decrease of happiness starting at birth and ending at death, that person might choose the increase. On the other hand if there were another choice on the table one with a steady line across of happiness at a certain level, one would be more attracted too that because of the element of equality throughout. Someone could argue about there being moments when people are happier than other happy moments, and I would explain that this theory would take that into account as I said earlier raising happiness would still be an option depending on the decisions made. Overall this example shows the theory that there is intrinsic value in equality of narrative flow.

          Beauty and ecosystems are the two theories that I find most flawed, but could still hold true under my theory of connectedness through equality. Equality of beauty would be understood as there being an equal sharing of beauty to all things. An example of this might be that a palm tree to some may not be found beautiful but to others it could be of great beauty and adds to their overall happiness in life. Now one may argue that there are just some things that are downright hideous. To that I would challenge them to find those things and do a survey asking about its aesthetic value and if 99.9% of the population confirmed this, I would then be slightly convinced. Ecosystems are similar in that the equality of ecosystems would be understood as everything in nature being equally connected. This just means that there is an intrinsic value in seeing living and non-living things working together, and along with that revelation would be the fact that they have to all be equally connected in order to interact efficiently. If one part of the system failed to connect with another the whole system would falter.

          In all I believe that equality is the most defensible theory of goodness and intrinsic value because it plays a role in the other theories that connects them together which include: well-being, desert, narrative flow, beauty, and ecosystems.