Justice brings together in one indispensable volume essential readings on justice and moral reasoning. With readings from major thinkers from the classical era up to the present, the collection provides a thematic overview of the concept of justice. Moreover, Sandel's organization of the readings and his own commentaries allow readers to engage with a variety of pressing contemporary issues. Looking at a host of ethical dilemmas, including affirmative action, conscription, income distribution, and gay rights, from a variety of angles--morally, legally, politically--the collection engages with the core concerns of political philosophy: individual rights and the claims of community, equality and inequality, morality and law, and ultimately, justice. With concise section introductions that put the readings in context, this anthology is an invaluable tool for students, teachers, and anyone who wishes to engage in the great moral debates that have animated politics from classical times to our own.
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"Michael Sandel is one of the most popular and influential college professors in America. For more than twenty years, hundreds of students at a time have packed into a Harvard University lecture hall to hear his discourses on justice; and hundreds have streamed out feeling a surprisingly personal connection with their gifted teacher. This book reveals Sandel's secret recipe for enthralling students with timeless questions of law, justice, and morality in a decidedly contemporary context."--Anita L. Allen, Professor of Philosophy and Professor of Law, University of Pennsylvania Law School
"This thoughtful, stimulating, and convenient collection brings a range of classic moral and political philosophers--from Aristotle to John Stuart Mill--to bear on a range of contemporary controversies about justice. It invites readers to discover how their views on contemporary questions might be clarified, deepened and challenged by an encounter with enduring debates in moral and political philosophy."--Russell Muirhead, Associate Professor of Democracy and Politics, Dartmouth College
"This outstanding collection successfully blends historical and contemporary thought, on issues of theoretical and practical importance, to illuminate the main problems of justice. It is accessible to undergraduates in philosophy, with breadth and depth enough to engage the experienced philosophical reader hoping to rethink some central debates."--Michele Moody-Adams, Director and Professor of Ethics and Public Life, Cornell University
About the Author
Michael J. Sandel is the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government at Harvard University, where he has taught political philosophy since 1980. He is the author of numerous books, including Liberalism and the Limits of Justice, Democracy's Discontent, Public Philosophy and most recently, The Case against Perfection: Ethics in the Age of Genetic Engineering.
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48 of 49 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Michael Sandel is a political philosopher, Harvard professor and perhaps National Treasure. His concern is achieving a just society and introducing notions about virtue and moral reflection into political debates. His philosophy lectures merited a 12-part TV series on PBS, but something quite serious seems to be in the works.
Forget about the tedium of philosophy classes - memorizing arguments of great philosophers and reproducing them in exams. This is different. If Sandel continues to gain access to the country through the national media, he might do for us what Socrates did for the ancient Greeks. He might succeed in making moral reflection a public endeavor, not a solitary activity. To him, a philosopher can be an interlocutor for the people. He and his students (disciples?) might shame our politicians into doing the right thing more often.
Justice, read by the author, starts out in a friendly manner with its first case being the price gouging for necessities in the aftermath of Hurricane Charlie. At the time, newspapers were filled with editorials on how price gouging is not wrong since there's no "just price" and supply and demand should be allowed free reign. Yet buyers in emergencies are under duress and thus not truly free. That's why we feel a sense of outrage. We learn that we share principles tracing back to famous dead philosophers.
By the middle of this audiobook, Sandel cuts close to the bone and you can see now why politicians would like to confine him to the lecture hall. He shows us that justice is inescapably judgmental and that today's political arguments are about anything but virtue. He wants philosophy to be used on economics, not just on matters of abortion and gay marriage. Sandel demonstrates that the growing inequality in the U.S. undermines the solidarity that a democracy requires.
Sandel points to the hollowing out of the public realm on which a democratic society depends. As public services decline and decline, as we let our common spaces for all but wealthy Americans deteriorate, we undermine our shared democratic citizenship.
Common spaces accessible by our democracy include public transportation, parks, schools, hospitals and health clinics, libraries, the news media and more. Much of the rest of public life has become overly market-based. We privatize prisons and contemplate a system of monetary rewards for teachers whose students achieve higher scores on state assessments. We've allowed a terrific gap in military service with a smaller percentage of our public officials having children in the military and serving in the wars than ever before. We load heavy burdens onto families of our troops without mercy. We gave tax cuts to the rich in time of war and were advised to go shopping. In all this, Sandel explains the schools of philosophical thought that provided the principles we adopted.
Sandel contrasts ancient theories of justice, concerned with virtue, with modern theories concerned with freedom. Yet we share beliefs about virtue. We just don't apply them to economics and politics as he advises. Our society has deep currents of moral convictions. Many of us were appalled that those on Wall Street didn't take responsibility or show some contrition for their actions that caused so much pain to Main Street. These are issues that Sandel discusses. While popular with students, he's a scourge to those vested in the status quo.
Forget about the tedium of philosophy classes - memorizing arguments of great philosophers and reproducing them in exams. This is different. If Sandel continues to gain access to the country through the national media, he might do for us what Socrates did for the ancient Greeks. He might succeed in making moral reflection a public endeavor, not a solitary activity. To him, a philosopher can be an interlocutor for the people. He and his students (disciples?) might shame our politicians into doing the right thing more often.
Justice, read by the author, starts out in a friendly manner with its first case being the price gouging for necessities in the aftermath of Hurricane Charlie. At the time, newspapers were filled with editorials on how price gouging is not wrong since there's no "just price" and supply and demand should be allowed free reign. Yet buyers in emergencies are under duress and thus not truly free. That's why we feel a sense of outrage. We learn that we share principles tracing back to famous dead philosophers.
By the middle of this audiobook, Sandel cuts close to the bone and you can see now why politicians would like to confine him to the lecture hall. He shows us that justice is inescapably judgmental and that today's political arguments are about anything but virtue. He wants philosophy to be used on economics, not just on matters of abortion and gay marriage. Sandel demonstrates that the growing inequality in the U.S. undermines the solidarity that a democracy requires.
Sandel points to the hollowing out of the public realm on which a democratic society depends. As public services decline and decline, as we let our common spaces for all but wealthy Americans deteriorate, we undermine our shared democratic citizenship.
Common spaces accessible by our democracy include public transportation, parks, schools, hospitals and health clinics, libraries, the news media and more. Much of the rest of public life has become overly market-based. We privatize prisons and contemplate a system of monetary rewards for teachers whose students achieve higher scores on state assessments. We've allowed a terrific gap in military service with a smaller percentage of our public officials having children in the military and serving in the wars than ever before. We load heavy burdens onto families of our troops without mercy. We gave tax cuts to the rich in time of war and were advised to go shopping. In all this, Sandel explains the schools of philosophical thought that provided the principles we adopted.
Sandel contrasts ancient theories of justice, concerned with virtue, with modern theories concerned with freedom. Yet we share beliefs about virtue. We just don't apply them to economics and politics as he advises. Our society has deep currents of moral convictions. Many of us were appalled that those on Wall Street didn't take responsibility or show some contrition for their actions that caused so much pain to Main Street. These are issues that Sandel discusses. While popular with students, he's a scourge to those vested in the status quo.
14 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This collection gathers together a wide array of classic writings on the topic of justice -- justice as fairness (Rawls), justice as a framework for the protection of rights (Locke, Rawls, Mill), justice from a teleological perspective (Aristotle), justice as the grounding for a conception of categorical morality (Kant), and justice as a defense to the results of the market system (Nozick). This is an indispensible set of readings for anyone grappling with the foundational questions of how we should live as individuals, nations, and a species.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Michael Sandel's book is a solid rendering of the on-line PBS course. A superb alternate experience is the audio-book, which captures the warmth and humor and interactive intelligence of Professor Sandel's class. On-line college instructors could gain much from watching the series, imagining the potential for video portrayals in addition to the usual textual discourse seen in on-line instruction. Likewise, listening to the exchanges between professor and student in the audio-book format provides an excellent introduction to Sandel's dialogic style. Top quality, truly worthwhile.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Justice: A Reader
This is only part of the product I bought into; I'm taking the course on line @ Harvardjustice. Professor Sandel is excellent, as well as the book of the accumulated reading for... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Darrell Voitik
2.0 out of 5 stars
New? I don't think so......
I bought this product, thinking that it will be brand new, as I have paid for, only to have it delivered disappointingly. Read more
Published 16 months ago by AGuyWhoRarelyComplainsButThisIsDifferent
4.0 out of 5 stars
good enough
shipment was good enough. Book look good in an shape. I received less than 10 day, i guess Irine has hold it a little
Published 20 months ago by reader
3.0 out of 5 stars
Starts good, gradually loses cohesion
The first half of this book gives a nice overview of different moral philosophies, but given the complex nature of real world problems the author (in this readers point of view)... Read more
Published on November 26, 2010 by TorintinoFan
3.0 out of 5 stars
Sandel's Justice: A Reader
Concise source of information spanning time related to justice - from philosophical theories to court cases. Articles selected are appropriate and useful. Read more
Published on November 9, 2008 by Veritas
4.0 out of 5 stars
Philosophical lecture series from Harvard's leading scholar
Michael Sandel is an excellent & interesting speaker on the complexities of Justice...in a variety of cicumstances & ambients. Read more
Published on October 23, 2008 by Terry Crook
3.0 out of 5 stars
Justice: an excellent reader
This is a course textbook. It contains selected readings on the philosophical issue of justice. It is greatly enhanced by hearing Sandel's lectures along with the book.
Published on October 7, 2008 by A. Moore
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