Michael Sandel Quotes on Knowledge
Michael Sandel’s pedagogical practice — the Justice course at Harvard recorded for international broadcast and the parallel sequence of public-philosophy books from Liberalism and the Limits of Justice (1982) through The Tyranny of Merit (2020) — gives contemporary American political philosophy one of its most distinctive engagements with the conditions under which philosophical knowledge can be acquired through public dialogue. The central methodological commitment is that genuine philosophical learning proceeds through the careful examination of competing answers to substantive practical questions — over markets, meritocracy, justice, and the limits of public reason — within a community of inquirers whose disagreements are clarified rather than dissolved by the philosophical work, and that the corresponding ideal of public philosophy as a contribution to democratic culture is irreducible to the technical philosophical literature of the academic specialty. The framework, drawing on the Aristotelian-communitarian tradition and Sandel’s broader work on the moral limits of markets, shaped contemporary public philosophy and the broader engagement between academic political theory and democratic civic life.
Quotes
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“Michael J. Sandel, "The Procedural Republic and the Unencumbered Self" (1984)”
Political philosophy seems often to reside at a distance from the world. Principles are one thing, politics another, and even our best efforts to ‘live up’ to our ideals typically founder on the gap between theory and practice. But if political philosophy is unrealizable in one sense, it is unavoidable in another. This is the sense in which philosophy inhabits the world from the start; our practic -
“Michael J. Sandel, "The Procedural Republic and the Unencumbered Self" (1984)”
This liberalism says, in other words, that what makes the just society just is not the telos or purpose or end at which it aims, but precisely its refusal to choose in advance among competing purposes and ends. In its constitution and its laws, the just society seeks to provide a framework within which its citizens can pursue their own values and ends, consistent with a similar liberty for others -
“Michael J. Sandel, "The Procedural Republic and the Unencumbered Self" (1984)”
Unlike the liberty of the early republic, the modern version permits — in fact even requires — concentrated power. -
“Chap. 1. The Public Philosophy of Contemporary Liberalism”
A public philosophy is an elusive thing, for it is constantly before our eyes. It forms the often unreflective background to our political discourse and pursuits. In ordinary times, the public philosophy can easily escape the notice of those who live by it. But anxious times compel a certain clarity. They force first principles to the surface and offer an occasion for critical reflection. -
“The idea that freedom consists in our capacity to choose our ends finds prominent expression in our politics and law. Its province is not limited to those known as liberals rather than conservatives in American politics; it can be found across the political spectrum.”
Democracy's Discontent(1996) | Chap. 1. The Public Philosophy of Contemporary Liberalism