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.

[full article: UPI]

Prepared by The Harvard Review of Philosophy and edited by Phin Upham

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

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