COOPERATION & EQUALITY

Cooperation is ubiquitous. Many creatures need to cooperate. But humans cooperate, not just because we need to, but also because we love to. As is clear from infant play, pointing and showing, from a very young age, we love to share activities, information, and attention.

 

Equality is the moral or political ideal that like cases should be treated alike. Very many of us subscribe to some version of this ideal. The devil comes in the detail. Also in the balancing of equality against other ideals, such as desert, liberty and efficiency.

 

Traditionally, research on cooperation and equality has been conducted separately. The aim of the project is to investigate the connections between them. These fall roughly into three categories.