14. A broad premise so overarching and common as to be often thought of as not "rich" enough for theoretical debate, this "universal concept of personhood" still provides a moral notion that carries a great deal of political force, for the most powerful philosophical ally of modern struggles for equality and social justice is the universalist view that individual human worth is absolute: it cannot be traded away, and it does not exist in degrees (Mohanty 1997: 199).