ABSTRACT
This chapter revisits the conceptual and empirical tension between freedom and equality and seeks ways to reconcile the two values, because these values stand at the frontline of order wars being waged both locally and globally in the twenty-first century. It focuses on how many ideas and ideologies which apparently intended to liberate the peoples from misery and oppression were reversed to become the discourses of suppressing freedom in the name of freedom. John Rawls' theory of justice is at first sight a meaningful combination of equality and freedom, but in effect his approach remains within the concept of numeric equality, based on the methodologies of "veil of ignorance" and maximum rule. In Western discourses, however, equality was always reduced to numerical equality in clear defiance of Aristotle's approach of balancing equality and inequality. Western discourses about freedom/liberation and equality represent an enormous progress in the history of mankind.
