Michael J. Sandel quotes - page 2

The assumption that government must be neutral among conceptions of the good generally appears in cases in which the Court protects speech that government would restrict. But the force of this assumption can also be seen where the Court has upheld restrictions on speech, most notably, in obscenity cases. Although the Court has been reluctant to protect obscenity under the First Amendment, its reasoning in recent obscenity cases displays the powerful influence of neutrality assumptions on constitutional law. (Michael J. Sandel)
Freedom of conscience and freedom of choice are not the same; where conscience dictates, choice decides. Where freedom of conscience is at stake, the relevant right is to perform a duty, not to make a choice. This was the issue for Madison and Jefferson. Religious liberty addressed the problem of encumbered selves, claimed by duties they cannot renounce, even in the face of civil obligations that may conflict. View quote
Michael J. Sandel
Unlike utilitarianism, republican theory does not take people's existing preferences, whatever they may be, and try to satisfy them. It seeks instead to cultivate in citizens the qualities of character necessary to the common good of self-government. Insofar as certain dispositions, attachments, and commitments are essential to the realization of self-government, republican politics regards moral character as a public, not merely private, concern. In this sense, it attends to the identity, not just the interests, of its citizens. View quote
Michael J. Sandel
Luck egalitarianism defends inequalities that arise from effort and choice. This highlights a point of convergence with free-market liberalism. Both emphasize personal responsibility and make the community's obligation to help the needy conditional on showing that their neediness is no fault of their own. View quote
Michael J. Sandel
To put the point another way, the republican sees liberty as internally connected to self-government and the civic virtues that sustain it. View quote
Michael J. Sandel
I almost became a political journalist, having worked as a reporter at the time of Watergate. The proximity to those events motivated me, when I wound up doing philosophy, to try to use it to move the public debate. View quote
Michael J. Sandel
Whether you're a libertarian liberal or a more egalitarian liberal, the idea is that justice means being non-judgmental with respect to the preferences people bring to public life. View quote
Michael J. Sandel
The way things are does not determine the way they ought to be. View quote
Michael J. Sandel
A market economy is a tool - a valuable and effective tool - for organizing productive activity. A market society is a way of life in which market values seep into every aspect of human endeavour. It's a place where social relations are made over in the image of the market. View quote
Michael J. Sandel
Self-knowledge is like lost innocence; however unsettling you find it, it can never be 'unthought' or 'unknown'. View quote
Michael J. Sandel
It's ultimately the purpose of education to cultivate the love of learning for its own sake. (Michael J. Sandel)
They say the state should not impose on its citizens a preferred way of life, but should leave them as free as possible to choose their own values and ends, consistent with a similar liberty for others. View quote
Michael J. Sandel
In most of our lives, we are accustomed to aiming at mastery and control and dominion- - over nature, over our lives, over our jobs, over our careers, over the goods that we buy. View quote
Michael J. Sandel
The most fateful change that unfolded during the past three decades was not an increase in greed. It was the expansion of markets, and of market values, into spheres of life where they don't belong. View quote
Michael J. Sandel
There are some religious traditions that view human beings as participants in creation. This is true of the Jewish tradition, from which I come. View quote
Michael J. Sandel
If we go too far down the road of choosing the genetic traits of children, my worry is that parenting will be less a kind of school for humility than it should be, and we will become too accustomed to regarding children as instruments of our ambition and of our desires. View quote
Michael J. Sandel
My goal is first of all to promote a public debate about where markets serve the public good and where they don't belong. That's my first goal. View quote
Michael J. Sandel
I think it would be a great tragedy to devote medical resources and genetic technological breakthroughs to purposes that are not to do with health or medicine, but instead are to do with satisfying the desires that are created by the consumer society. View quote
Michael J. Sandel
One of the ways in which parenting is a learning experience and an opportunity for moral growth is that we learn as parents that we don't choose the kind of child that we have. View quote
Michael J. Sandel
I do think it is very important that the religious communities do try to bring their teachings and their insights to bear on the stem cell debate and on the debate about genetic engineering. View quote
Michael J. Sandel
Most economics that is taught in college and universities today projects itself as a value-neutral science. This claim has always been open to question, but I think it's especially in doubt today. (Michael J. Sandel)
Over the past three decades, markets and market thinking have been reaching into spheres of life traditionally governed by non-market norms. As a result, we've drifted from having a market economy to becoming a market society. View quote
Michael J. Sandel
I would include non-medical sex selection as one of those practices that I think is morally questionable and that can carry adverse social consequences. View quote
Michael J. Sandel
I think part of being a parent, to love one's child, is to accept them as they come - not to see them as instruments of our ambition or as creatures to be molded, as if they were themselves commodities. View quote
Michael J. Sandel
What intrigued me most was not the technology as such but the questions about the human goods, the fundamental human values and virtues that are raised by debates over biotechnology. View quote
Michael J. Sandel