ABSTRACT
Moral and political contestation over social inequality has been a major issue since the French Revolution. It has also been a concern of social theory at least since Plato’s Republic and most saliently since the publication of Rousseau’s Discourse on the Origins and Foundations of Inequality Among Men (1755). The fullest general discussion of social inequality in recent sociological theory has been the debate of several decades ago over the Davis-Moore functional theory of stratification. Recent events in the world as well as developments within sociological theory have changed the context for assessing inequality in human society, its nature, causes, consequences, and whether, how, and how much it might be limited.
