Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Michael Sandel

One of the classes I'm teaching this year is, basically, a political philosophy class for Sociology majors. Following the Sociology Department's recommendation, I'm assigning Michael Sandel's book "Justice: What's The Right Thing To Do?"

It has some important secondary advantages--e.g. it's available in Korean translation--and, to be fair, it's reasonably well-written. Sandel uses lots of nice, vivid historical examples. But in some ways.....Jesus.

To steal a line from Jay Rosenberg, Sandel's critique of utilitarianism commits genocide against an entire race of straw men.

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