Michael Sandel
We are not unencumbered individuals but members of communities, and some things – like civic life, dignity and our children – should not be for sale.
Placement
Harvard political philosopher whose course “Justice” reached millions: we are not “unencumbered selves” choosing behind a veil of ignorance but members of communities – and some goods should not be for sale.
Key ideas
- Critique of the unencumbered self
- Civic republicanism
- Moral limits of markets
- Tyranny of merit
Teachers: Charles Taylor
Influence
Influenced by 2
Aristotle
influenced by
Sandel drew on Aristotle’s teleological reasoning – justice as allocating goods by their purpose – to question liberal neutrality (Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do?, 2009). M. J. Sandel, Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? (2009); The Case against Perfection (2007)
Evidence: AI draft
Aristotle › 384–322 BCE
Charles Taylor studied with
studied with
Sandel studied at Balliol College, Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar and wrote his DPhil under Charles Taylor (1981); it grew into Liberalism and the Limits of Justice (1982). Berggruen Institute, laureate biography of M. Sandel; M. J. Sandel, Liberalism and the Limits of Justice (1982)
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
Charles Taylor › b. 1931
Criticism
Criticizes 3
Immanuel Kant
criticised
Sandel criticised the Kantian self prior to its ends, the basis of deontological liberalism, as an ‘unencumbered self’ (‘The Procedural Republic and the Unencumbered Self’, 1984). M. J. Sandel, “The Procedural Republic and the Unencumbered Self”, Political Theory 12 (1984); Liberalism and the Limits of Justice (1982)
Evidence: AI draft
Immanuel Kant › 1724–1804
Francis Galton
criticised
Sandel criticised Galton’s eugenics as a drive to mastery that ignores the giftedness of life, a problem inherited by ‘liberal eugenics’ (The Case against Perfection, 2007). M. J. Sandel, The Case against Perfection (2007), ch. 4 “Eugenics”
Evidence: AI draft
Francis Galton › 1822–1911
John Rawls
criticised
Sandel argued that Rawls presupposes an ‘unencumbered self’ choosing its ends prior to attachments, which cannot account for community (Liberalism and the Limits of Justice, 1982). M. J. Sandel, Liberalism and the Limits of Justice (1982; 2nd ed. 1998)
Evidence: AI draft
John Rawls › 1921–2002
Works
Against Rawls: the self behind the veil of ignorance is an “unencumbered self”, stripped of the attachments and communities that help to make us who we are – a founding text of the communitarian critique of liberalism.
Meritocracy breeds hubris among those who succeed and humiliation among those left behind; Sandel calls for honouring the dignity of work and a politics of the common good.
Position
“Liberalism and the Limits of Justice” made Sandel a leading critic of Rawls and is counted among the founding texts of communitarianism, a label he himself has resisted. Rawls’s theory, he argued, presupposes an “unencumbered self” that chooses its ends from behind a veil of ignorance, prior to all attachments; but we are “encumbered” selves, partly constituted by the families, communities and traditions to which we belong, and some obligations – of solidarity and membership – are not chosen. Liberal neutrality towards conceptions of the good life is therefore neither possible nor desirable: questions of justice cannot be settled without arguing about what is worth honouring. “Democracy’s Discontent” defended the civic republican tradition of self-government against a merely procedural liberalism. Later books bring this to public life: “The Case against Perfection” argues against genetic enhancement in the name of the “giftedness” of life, “What Money Can’t Buy” warns that markets corrupt goods such as education, health and citizenship, and “The Tyranny of Merit” argues that meritocracy breeds hubris among the winners and humiliation among those left behind.
Life & context
Michael Sandel (born 1953 in Minneapolis) grew up there and in Los Angeles, studied politics at Brandeis University and went to Balliol College, Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar, where he wrote his doctorate under Charles Taylor. He has taught at Harvard since 1980 and is Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government. His lecture course “Justice” was the first Harvard course made freely available online and on television and has been watched by tens of millions of people around the world. He served on President George W. Bush’s Council on Bioethics, and he received the Princess of Asturias Award for Social Sciences in 2018 and the Berggruen Prize for Philosophy and Culture in 2025.
Further main works
- Democracy’s Discontent (1996)
- The Case against Perfection (2007)
- Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? (2009)
- What Money Can’t Buy (2012)
Appears in
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