Michael Sandel

For the British artist, see Michael Sandle.

Michael J. Sandel
Born	(1953-03-05) March 5, 1953 Minneapolis, Minnesota, US
Alma mater	Brandeis University Balliol College, Oxford
Notable work	Liberalism and the Limits of Justice (1982) Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do? (2009)
Era	Contemporary philosophy
Region	Western philosophy
School	Analytic communitarianism
Institutions	Harvard University
Thesis	Liberalism and the Problem of the Moral Subject (1980)
Doctoral advisor	Charles Taylor
Main interests	Political philosophy jurisprudence ethics
Notable ideas	Communitarian critique of liberalism

Michael J. Sandel (/sænˈdɛl/; born 1953) is an American political philosopher. He is the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government Theory at Harvard University Law School, where his course Justice was the university's first course to be made freely available online and on television. It has been viewed by tens of millions of people around the world, including in China, where Sandel was named the "most influential foreign figure of the year" (China Newsweek). He is also known 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.

Early life and education

Sandel was born in Minneapolis on March 5, 1953, to a Jewish family, which moved to Los Angeles when he was thirteen. He was president of his senior class at Palisades High School (1971) and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Brandeis University with a bachelor's degree in politics (1975). He received his doctorate from Balliol College, Oxford (1981), as a Rhodes Scholar, where he studied under philosopher Charles Taylor.

Philosophical views

Sandel subscribes to a certain version of communitarianism (although he is uncomfortable with the label), and in this vein he is perhaps best known for his critique of John Rawls' A Theory of Justice. Rawls' argument depends on the assumption of the veil of ignorance, which he claims allows us to become "unencumbered selves".

Sandel's view is that we are by nature encumbered to an extent that makes it impossible even in the hypothetical to have such a veil. Some examples of such ties are those with our families, which we do not make by conscious choice but are born with, already attached. Because they are not consciously acquired, it is impossible to separate oneself from such ties. Sandel believes that only a less-restrictive, looser version of the veil of ignorance should be postulated. Criticism such as Sandel's inspired Rawls to subsequently argue that his theory of justice was not a "metaphysical" theory but a "political" one, a basis on which an overriding consensus could be formed among individuals and groups with many different moral and political views.

Teaching

Justice

Sandel joined the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University in 1981. He has taught the Justice course at Harvard University for two decades. More than 15,000 students have taken the course, making it one of the most highly attended in Harvard's history. The fall 2007 class was the largest ever at Harvard, with a total of 1,115 students. The fall 2005 course was recorded, and is offered online for students through the Harvard Extension School.

An abridged form of this recording is now a 12-episode TV series, Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?, in a co-production of WGBH and Harvard University. Episodes are available on the Justice with Michael Sandel website. There is also an accompanying book, Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do? and the sourcebook of readings Justice: A Reader.

The popularity of the show is attributed to the discussion-oriented format (the Socratic method)—rather than recitation and memorization of facts—and to Sandel's engaging style, incorporating context into discussion; for example, he starts one lecture with a discussion of the ethics of ticket scalping.

The BBC broadcast eight 30-minute segments from the series on BBC Four starting on 25 January 2011.

In April 2012, BBC Radio 4 broadcast a three-part series and later podcast presented by Sandel titled The Public Philosopher. These followed a format similar to the Justice lectures, this time recorded in front of an audience at the London School of Economics. Across three programs, Sandel debates with the audience whether universities should give preference to students from poorer backgrounds, whether a nurse should be paid more than a banker, and whether it is right to bribe people to be healthy.

edX

Sandel is currently teaching his Justice course on edX. On April 29, 2013, the philosophy department faculty of San Jose State University addressed an open letter to Sandel protesting the use of MOOCs (massively open online courses) such as his Justice course. Sandel publicly responded: "The worry that the widespread use of online courses will damage departments in public universities facing budgetary pressures is a legitimate concern that deserves serious debate, at edX and throughout higher education. The last thing I want is for my online lectures to be used to undermine faculty colleagues at other institutions."

Other teaching

Sandel also co-teaches, with Douglas Melton, the seminar "Ethics and Biotechnology", which considers the ethical implications of a variety of biotechnological procedures and possibilities.

Authorship

Sandel is the author of several publications, including Democracy's Discontent and Public Philosophy. Public Philosophy is a collection of his own previously published essays examining the role of morality and justice in American political life. He offers a commentary on the roles of moral values and civic community in the American electoral process—a much-debated aspect of the 2004 US election cycle and of current political discussion.

Sandel gave the 2009 Reith Lectures on "A New Citizenship" on BBC Radio, addressing the "prospect for a new politics of the common good". The lectures were delivered in London on May 18, Oxford on May 21, Newcastle on May 26, and Washington, DC, in early June, 2009.

He is also the author of the book What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets (2012), which argues some desirable things—such as body organs and the right to kill endangered species—should not be traded for cash.

Public service

Sandel served on the George W. Bush administration's President's Council on Bioethics.

2009 immigration commentary

In 2009, Sandel criticized Sveriges Riksbank-Prize-winning economist Gary Becker's market immigration proposal. This proposed solution entailed imposing refugee quotas on nations according to their wealth and then allowing countries to pay other, poorer countries to take refugees allotted under their quota. Sandel concludes that "a market in refugees changes our view of who refugees are and how they should be treated. It encourages the participants—the buyers, the sellers and also those whose asylum is being haggled over—to think of refugees as burdens to be unloaded or as revenue sources rather than as human beings in peril."

Awards and honors

• 1985 Harvard-Radcliffe Phi Beta Kappa Teaching Prize
• 2012 Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award, shortlist, What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets
• 2012 Foreign Policy magazine Top Global Thinker
• 2014 Honorary doctorate, Utrecht University
• 2018 Premio Princesa de Asturias de las Ciencias Sociales

Works

• Democracy's Discontent : America in Search of a Public Philosophy. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. 1998. ISBN 9780674197459.
• Liberalism and the Limits of Justice. Cambridge, UK New York: Cambridge University Press. 1998. ISBN 9780521567411.
  • French translation: Le libéralisme et les limites de la justice. Paris: Editions du Seuil. 1999. ISBN 9782020326308.
  • Spanish translation: El liberalismo y los límites de la justicia. Barcelona: Gedisa. 2000. ISBN 9788474327069.
• Public Philosophy: Essays on Morality in Politics. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. 2005. ISBN 9780674023659.
• The Case Against Perfection: Ethics in the Age of Genetic Engineering. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. 2007. ISBN 9780674019270.
  • German translation: Plädoyer gegen die Perfektion : Ethik im Zeitalter der genetischen Technik. Berlin: Berlin Univ. Press. 2008. ISBN 9783940432148.
  • Spanish translation: Contra la perfección. Barcelona: Marbot. 2013. ISBN 9788493574444.
• Justice: A Reader. Oxford New York: Oxford University Press. 2007. ISBN 9780195335125.
• Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2010. ISBN 9780374532505.
  • Translated into Chinese, Spanish, French, Greek, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Vietnamese editions; see the article on the book for the full citations.
• What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2012. ISBN 9780374203030.
  • German translation: Was man für Geld nicht kaufen kann: die moralischen Grenzen des Marktes. Berlin: Ullstein. 2012. ISBN 9783550080265.
  • French translation: Ce que l'argent ne saurait acheter: les limites morales du marché. Paris: Editions du Seuil. 2014. ISBN 9782021173239.
  • Also translated into Spanish and other languages.

See also

• American philosophy
• List of American philosophers

External links

• Harvard University Bio
• Michael Sandel: On the Good Life on Berggruen Institute's YouTube channel
• Podcast interview with Nigel Warburton on Philosophy Bites on What Shouldn't Be Sold
• "The Case Against Perfection: Ethics in the Age of Genetic Engineering, by Michael J. Sandel (2007)" by N. Antonios at the Embryo Project Encyclopedia
• Podcast interview with Nigel Warburton on Ethics Bites on the topic of Genetic Enhancement in Sports
• The President's Council on Bioethics
• A page of links relating to the 2009 Reith Lectures
• What's The Right Thing To Do? on Harvard University's YouTube channel
• Fairness and the Big Society Debate on BBC
• Justice: a series of lectures by Michael Sandel on BBC
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Michael Sandel at TED
• Talk and Q&A on "Populism, Trump and the Future of Democracy" held at The American Academy in Berlin, April 2018