Objective:

The main purpose of this article is to explore contributions of some theories from political that are relevant to the study of inequality. Central part of the discussion focuses on economic inequality because it is one of the more commons forms for studying inequality; however, various reasons for moving to a multidimensional study of inequality are also presented.

Analytical approach:

In order to address this theme, the manuscript is organized in two main sections. First, to analyse why material inequality is important, some of its main characteristics are outlined and statistical data is described. Second, four contributions from contemporary political philosophy are examined; these are: (1) ideas on justice and the political principles for a just distribution of goods; (2) ideologies that accompany inequality; (3) strategies to mitigate economic inequality and (4) the importance of moving to a multidimensional analysis of inequality.

Conclusion:

This article concludes that some theories from political philosophy contribute to address the study of inequality in its multiple dimensions, but such contributions are often disregarded from mainstream analysis of this theme.