Introduction Part I. American Civic Life 1. America's Search for a Public Philosophy 2. Beyond Individualism: Democrats and Community 3. The Politics of Easy Virtue 4. Big Ideas 5. The Problem with Civility 6. Impeachment--Then and Now 7. Robert F. Kennedy's Promise Part II. Moral and Political Arguments 8. Against State Lotteries 9. Commercials in the Classroom 10. Branding the Public Realm 11. Sports and Civic Identity 12. History for Sale 13. The Market for Merit 14. Should We Buy the Right to Pollute? 15. Honor and Resentment 16. Arguing Affirmative Action 17. Should Victims Have a Say in Sentencing? 18. Clinton and Kant on Lying 19. Is There a Right to Assisted Suicide? 20. Embryo Ethics: The Moral Logic of Stem Cell Research 21. Moral Argument and Liberal Toleration: Abortion and Homosexuality Part III. Liberalism, Pluralism, and Community 22. Morality and the Liberal Ideal 23. The Procedural Republic and the Unencumbered Self 24. Justice as Membership 25. The Peril of Extinction 26. Dewey's Liberalism and Ours 27. Mastery and Hubris in Judaism: What's Wrong with Playing God? 28. Political Liberalism 29. Remembering Rawls 30. The Limits of Communitarianism Notes Credits Index
Michael Sandel can always be counted on to write with elegance and intelligence about important things. Whether you agree or not, you cannot ignore his arguments. We need all the sane voices we can get in the public square and Sandel's is one of the sanest. -- Jean Bethke Elshtain, The University of Chicago Divinity School No matter what your politics are, you will find Michael Sandel's Public Philosophy exciting, invigorating, discerning and encouraging. Conservatives will discover a liberalism they didn't know existed: profoundly concerned with responsibility, community and the importance of individual virtue. Liberals and Democrats who know their side needs an engaging public philosophy will find its bricks and mortar, its contours and basic principles, right here in these pages. To a political debate that is too often dispiriting and sterile, Sandel has offered a brilliant and badly needed antidote. -- E.J. Dionne Jr., syndicated columnist, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, professor at Georgetown University, author of Why Americans Hate Politics and Stand Up Fight Back Michael Sandel is one of the world's best known and most influential political theorists. He is unusual for the range of practical ethical issues that he has addressed: life, death, sports, religion, commerce, and more. These essays are lucid, pointed, often highly subtle and revealing. Sandel has something important and worthwhile to say about every topic he addresses. -- Stephen Macedo, Princeton University
Michael J. Sandel is the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government, Harvard University, and the author most recently of Public Philosophy (Harvard).
Michael Sandel can always be counted on to write with elegance and
intelligence about important things. Whether you agree or not, you
cannot ignore his arguments. We need all the sane voices we can get
in the public square and Sandel's is one of the sanest.
*Jean Bethke Elshtain, The University of Chicago Divinity
School*
No matter what your politics are, you will find Michael Sandel's
Public Philosophy exciting, invigorating, discerning and
encouraging. Conservatives will discover a liberalism they didn't
know existed: profoundly concerned with responsibility, community
and the importance of individual virtue. Liberals and Democrats who
know their side needs an engaging public philosophy will find its
bricks and mortar, its contours and basic principles, right here in
these pages. To a political debate that is too often dispiriting
and sterile, Sandel has offered a brilliant and badly needed
antidote.
*E.J. Dionne Jr., syndicated columnist, senior fellow at the
Brookings Institution, professor at Georgetown University, author
of Why Americans Hate Politics and Stand Up Fight Back*
Michael Sandel is one of the world's best known and most
influential political theorists. He is unusual for the range of
practical ethical issues that he has addressed: life, death,
sports, religion, commerce, and more. These essays are lucid,
pointed, often highly subtle and revealing. Sandel has something
important and worthwhile to say about every topic he addresses.
*Stephen Macedo, Princeton University*
Michael Sandel...believes that liberal appeals to individual rights
and to the broad values of fairness and equality make a poor case
for the progressive case, both as a matter of strategy and as a
matter of principle. The country and the Democratic party would be
better off, he thinks, if progressives made more of an effort to
inspire the majority to adopt their vision of the common good and
make it the democratic ground for public policy and law....Anyone
concerned over the political success of conservatism in recent
years must be interested in this critical analysis.
*The New York Review of Books*
[Sandel] explains that our living in a pluralist society with
differing moral ideals does not inhibit our discussion of issues
like abortion and stem-cell research but instead helps us resolve
them by looking at what it means to live 'a good life.' This
thought-provoking book will be valuable to the general reader as
well as scholars.
*Library Journal*
Are the key values and beliefs that drive democracy in the United
States sufficient to cope with our current problems? Since
publishing his first book in 1982, Michael Sandel has offered a
negative answer to that question by focusing on what he sees as
widespread feelings of anxiety emerging from citizens’ recognition
that they are unable to shape either their personal or their
collective environments. He roots that pathology in our uncritical
acceptance of rights, fairness, and individual choice as the hard
parameters of legitimate politics, and proposes instead a return to
a pre-liberal perfectionism that emphasizes responsibility, civic
duty, and the common good. This new volume, which collects articles
previously published between 1983 and 2004, provides a valuable
overview of what Sandel calls his “public philosophy”...His
arguments are broad-ranging, lucid, and sincere in their concern
for our current public maladies. As such, they demand attention and
engagement.
*Social Theory and Practice*
Michael Sandel can always be counted on to write with elegance and
intelligence about important things. Whether you agree or not, you
cannot ignore his arguments. We need all the sane voices we can get
in the public square and Sandel's is one of the sanest. -- Jean
Bethke Elshtain, The University of Chicago Divinity School
No matter what your politics are, you will find Michael Sandel's
Public Philosophy exciting, invigorating, discerning and
encouraging. Conservatives will discover a liberalism they didn't
know existed: profoundly concerned with responsibility, community
and the importance of individual virtue. Liberals and Democrats who
know their side needs an engaging public philosophy will find its
bricks and mortar, its contours and basic principles, right here in
these pages. To a political debate that is too often dispiriting
and sterile, Sandel has offered a brilliant and badly needed
antidote. -- E.J. Dionne Jr., syndicated columnist, senior fellow
at the Brookings Institution, professor at Georgetown University,
author of Why Americans Hate Politics and Stand Up Fight Back
Michael Sandel is one of the world's best known and most
influential political theorists. He is unusual for the range of
practical ethical issues that he has addressed: life, death,
sports, religion, commerce, and more. These essays are lucid,
pointed, often highly subtle and revealing. Sandel has something
important and worthwhile to say about every topic he addresses. --
Stephen Macedo, Princeton University
Michael Sandel...believes that liberal appeals to individual rights
and to the broad values of fairness and equality make a poor case
for the progressive case, both as a matter of strategy and as a
matter of principle. The country and the Democratic party would be
better off, he thinks, if progressives made more of an effort to
inspire the majority to adopt their vision of the common good and
make it the democratic ground for public policy and law....Anyone
concerned over the political success of conservatism in recent
years must be interested in this critical analysis. -- Thomas Nagel
* The New York Review of Books *
[Sandel] explains that our living in a pluralist society with
differing moral ideals does not inhibit our discussion of issues
like abortion and stem-cell research but instead helps us resolve
them by looking at what it means to live 'a good life.' This
thought-provoking book will be valuable to the general reader as
well as scholars. -- Scott Duimstra * Library Journal *
Are the key values and beliefs that drive democracy in the United
States sufficient to cope with our current problems? Since
publishing his first book in 1982, Michael Sandel has offered a
negative answer to that question by focusing on what he sees as
widespread feelings of anxiety emerging from citizens' recognition
that they are unable to shape either their personal or their
collective environments. He roots that pathology in our uncritical
acceptance of rights, fairness, and individual choice as the hard
parameters of legitimate politics, and proposes instead a return to
a pre-liberal perfectionism that emphasizes responsibility, civic
duty, and the common good. This new volume, which collects articles
previously published between 1983 and 2004, provides a valuable
overview of what Sandel calls his "public philosophy"...His
arguments are broad-ranging, lucid, and sincere in their concern
for our current public maladies. As such, they demand attention and
engagement. -- William Lund * Social Theory and Practice *
Investigating the ways in which morality and politics intersect, Sandel (Democracy's Discontent) considers both the hot-button issues of contemporary political life-abortion, homosexuality, Clinton's bad behavior-and the weighty arguments of political philosophers from Kant to Rawls. He does so in essays that have been published over many years in both general audience venues and scholarly publications. The use of previously published essays makes for some repetition, and not all of his styles and approaches work effectively. The opening chapter, a historical overview of American public philosophy, explains in ponderous generalities "how the aspiration to neutrality finds prominent expression in our politics and law." But the later essays are better written. Some, such as "Honor and Resentment," an essay on whether a wheelchair-bound girl has the right to cheerlead, are short and sprightly. Others, like "The Procedural Republic and the Unencumbered Self," are long and incisive. Uniting the book are a few common themes: the importance of community, the insufficiency of individual rights as a basis for a democratic society and the need for political arguments to engage with questions of morality. All in all, this is an effective, though sometimes lumpy, blend of the wonky and the philosophical. (Nov.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
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