Quotes by Michael J. Sandel

About Michael J. Sandel:

Michael J. Sandel is an American political philosopher and a professor at Harvard University. He is best known for the Harvard course "Justice" and for his critique of John Rawls' A Theory of Justice in his first book, Liberalism and the Limits of Justice (1982). He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2002.
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philosophy teaches us and unsettles us by confronting us with what we already know; there's an irony: the difficulty consisted in this course is that it teaches what you already know; it works by taking what we know from familiar and unquestioned set...

Michael J. Sandel

A philosophy untouched by the shadows on the wall can only yield a sterile utopia.

Michael J. Sandel

Other animals can make sounds, and sounds can indicate pleasure and pain. But language, a distinctly human capacity, isn´t just for registering pleasure and pain. It´s about declaring what is just and what is unjust, and distinguishing right from w...

Michael J. Sandel

If the spirit of their intercourse were still the same after their coming together as it had been when they were living apart,' Aristotle writes, their association can't really be considered a polis, or political community. 'A polis is not an associa...

Michael J. Sandel

First, individual rights cannot be sacrificed for the sake of the general good, and second, the principles of justice that specify these rights cannot be premised on any particular vision of the good life. What justifies the rights is not that they m...

Michael J. Sandel

[T]he state should not impose a preferred way of life, but should leave its citizens as free as possible to choose their own values and ends, consistent with a similar liberty for others.

Michael J. Sandel

Author Bio

  • NameMichael J. Sandel
  • DescriptionAmerican political philosopher
  • AliasesMichael J. Sandel
  • BornMarch 5, 1953
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionProfessor; Political Philosopher; Educationist
  • AwardsFP Top 100 Global Thinkers