Response to critics

This response to critics addresses the questions raised throughout the symposium on the various issues raised throughout the Greatest of All Plagues . I address some of Cordelli's concerns about Hobbes's empirical assumptions by turning to Tocqueville. I answer Kirkland's questions regarding the nature of reforms intended to rectify inequality—whether practical or moral. Finally, I address Arlen's objections that the book has focused too much on the moral dimensions of inequality at the possible cost of underemphasizing the dangers of oligarchy. This particular concern provides an opportunity to discuss Walzer's Spheres of Justice and the difficulties of walling off inequality from other spheres of social life.