ABSTRACT
This chapter distinguishes between a number of distinct ideas which can be conveyed by the expression 'equality of opportunity'. Opportunities may be good, wonderful, or not very good, but they cannot be regarded as in no respect good. Often opportunities are regarded as good both by the person who has them and by others. It is now possible to formulate an incoherence in the notion of distributive justice contained within the idea of competitive equality of opportunity. The chapter concludes by trying to show that the conflict between equality of opportunity and liberty is more serious than this. It is not that the pursuit of such equality only sometimes may impinge on liberty: its pursuit will inevitably conflict with liberty. The movement in the direction of equality of opportunity will inevitably be a constraint on liberty.
