Thinking about life: Michael Sandel, Edited by Phin Upham

an article prepared by Phin Upham

While Michael Sandel is sympathetic to the liberal rights of the individual in his works, he goes on to argue that the existence of society precludes autonomous self-definition.

His provocative disquisitions ? e.g., ?Democracy?s Discontent: America in Search of a Public Philosophy, Liberalism? and the ?Limits of Justice, and Liberalism and Its Critics? ? speak of the necessity of a richly constituted individual self, defined by his environment and his fellow man.

For Sandel, man?s nature is frustrated by our splintered world where the successes of our global economy have meant the neglect of the impoverished individual. He predicts inauspicious times ahead if the individual cannot grow through the cultivation of his own community, through the growth of his fellow man.

Sandel questions the political paradigm of moral neutrality. He considers the challenges of human nature: the difficulty of realizing ourselves as individuals in the collective context of society. In seeking to preserve man?s community, Sandel looks to preserve man himself. In doing so, he further preserves philosophy, which would become impossible within disaggregated human life.

As a professor of political philosophy, history of political thought, and moral reasoning, Sandel has developed a complex conception of politics.

As the setting for collective deliberation and mutual rights, politics lay the groundwork for social living. Recognizing the Aristotelian conception of government as a good in itself, Sandel considers politics as the tie that honors man?s social nature by linking one man to the aggregate.

Sandel further considers whether this good might be the precursor to an even greater good, whether through politics we could uncover moral truth. Is government the vehicle for maintaining the social connections among men and if so, mustn?t it be, as man himself is, moral in nature?

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Phin Upham?has a PhD in Applied Economics from the Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania). Phin us a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He can be reached at phin@phinupham.com

18 August 2011 | Reference and Education

Source: http://www.apodimosstudents.com/reference-and-education/thinking-about-life-michael-sandel-edited-by-phin-upham/

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