Social Equations

摘要

Consider the following mathematical formulas: (1) x = y; (2) x > y. The first formula, which expresses a relation of equality between its two terms, is an equation. The second, which posits that x is greater than y, is an inequality. Yes, an inequality - not that there is anything wrong with that. An inequality, in mathematics, is simply a different kind of relationship than an equation. There is no reason, in the abstract, to think it better for two things to be equal than for them to be unequal, and thus no reason, in general, to endorse equations or denounce inequalities.