The article is devoted to the analysis of the genesis of the principle of equality in law and philosophical and legal ideas. It was established that the researched category was born in the period of Antiquity and is developing until now. Equality means the same position of people in society. This category has an axiological character and was formed evolutionarily, together with the development of the concepts of the state and law. The Pythagoreans were among the first to form the concept of equality, who considered law as an equal measure of the regulation of unequal relations and unequal persons. Representatives of this movement believed that inequality comes from laws, not from nature. It is noted that the outstanding thinker of Antiquity, Plato, was not at all a supporter of absolute equality; emphasized the primary need to observe the principle of justice, conformity and propriety. Plato's ideas were partly supported by Aristotle. It is noted that in the Middle Ages, the idea of equality developed in the context of natural law, theocentrism was the basis of the worldview, and religious ideology, according to which all people are equal before God, played a corresponding role. The issue of equality became especially relevant during the Renaissance, when man appeared at the center of the philosophical worldview. The ideas of humanists related to the justification of human rights, the possibilities of personal development, the denial of tyranny and the establishment of the principle of equality of all individuals. Ukrainian thinkers of this period also actively developed the concept of equality and independence: personal, religious and national. In the period of the New Age, equality becomes one of the basic philosophical and legal categories. The concept of ensuring equal opportunities and the duty of the state to ensure the equality of all members of society has become generally accepted. The modern understanding of the concept of equality is based on the concept of natural law, and its interpretation is very different from the understanding of man as a bearer of natural rights in the era of the anti-feudal revolution.
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