ABSTRACT
Laws that prohibit discrimination typically prohibit discrimination on the basis of particular, listed traits. For example, discrimination on the basis of race, sex, disability or religion is prohibited. This observation about discrimination laws gives rise to the question: is there a moral difference between “discriminating” on the basis of these sorts of traits and “discriminating” on the basis of other sorts of traits? For example, if an employer refuses to hire Adams because his last name begins with “A,” is this wrongful discrimination (cf. Introduction and Chapter 1)? According to a meaning-based view of wrongful discrimination, acts and policies that differentiate between people on the basis of some traits have a social meaning in particular cultures and at particular times that differentiating between people on the basis of other traits do not, and this meaning is, in significant part, what makes the discrimination wrong (Hellman 2008).
