Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?

Abstract

For Michael Sandel, justice is not a spectator sport, The Nation's reviewer of Justice remarked. In his acclaimed book based on his legendary Harvard course Sandel offers a rare education in thinking through the complicated issues and controversies we face in public life today. It has emerged as a most lucid and engaging guide for those who yearn for a more robust and thoughtful public discourse. "In terms we can all understand," wrote Jonathan Rauch in The New York Times, Justice "confronts us with the concepts that lurk . . . beneath our conflicts." Affirmative action, same-sex marriage, physician-assisted suicide, abortion, national service, the moral limits of markets Sandel relates the big questions of political philosophy to the most vexing issues of the day, and shows how a surer grasp of philosophy can help us make sense of politics, morality, and our own convictions as well. Justice is lively, thought-provoking, and wise an essential new addition to the small shelf of books that speak convincingly to the hard questions of our civic life.