Liberalism and the Limits of Justice or The Founders and the Classics

Liberalism and the Limits of Justice

Author: Michael J Sandel

A liberal society seeks not to impose a single way of life, but to leave its citizens as free as possible to choose their own values and ends. It therefore must govern by principles of justice that do not presuppose any particular vision of the good life. But can any such principles be found? And if not, what are the consequences for justice as a moral and political ideal? These are the questions Michael Sandel takes up in this penetrating critique of contemporary liberalism. This new edition includes a new introduction and a new final chapter in which Professor Sandel responds to the later work of John Rawls.

Table of Contents:

	Preface to the Second Edition: The Limits of Communitarianism
	Acknowledgments
	Introduction: Liberalism and the Primacy of Justice	1
1	Justice and the Moral Subject	15
	The Primacy of Justice and the Priority of the Self	15
	Liberalism without Metaphysics: The Original Position	24
	The Circumstances of Justice: Empiricist Objections	28
	The Circumstances of Justice: Deontological Rejoinder	40
	In Search of the Moral Subject	47
	The Self and the Other: The Priority of Plurality	50
	The Self and Its Ends: The Subject of Possession	54
	Individualism and the Claims of Community	60
2	Possession, Desert, and Distributive Justice	66
	Libertarianism to Egalitarianism	66
	Meritocracy versus the Difference Principle	72
	Defending Common Assets	77
	The Basis of Desert	82
	Individual and Social Claims: Who Owns What?	95
3	Contract Theory and Justification	104
	The Morality of Contract	105
	Contracts versus Contractarian Arguments	109
	Liberalism and the Priority of Procedure	113
	What Really Goes on behind the Veil of Ignorance	122
4	Justice and the Good	133
	The Unity of the Self	133
	The Case of Affirmative Action	135
	Three Conceptions of Community	147
	Agency and the Role of Reflection	154
	Agency and the Role of Choice	161
	The Status of the Good	165
	The Moral Epistemology of Justice	168
	Justice and Community	172
	Conclusion: Liberalism and the Limits of Justice	175
	A Response to Rawls' Political Liberalism	184
	Bibliography	219
	Index	227

See also: El Ciclo de Capital aventurado

The Founders and the Classics: Greece, Rome, and the American Enlightenment

Author: Carl J Richard

Is our Greek and Roman heritage merely allusive and illusory? Or were our founders, and so our republican beginnings, truly steeped in the stuff of antiquity? So far largely a matter of generalization and speculation, the influence of Greek and Roman authors on our American forefathers finally becomes clear in this fascinating book-the first comprehensive study of the founders' classical reading.

Carl J. Richard begins by examining how eighteenth-century social institutions in general and the educational system in particular conditioned the founders to venerate the classics. He then explores the founders' various uses of classical symbolism, models, "antimodels," mixed government theory, pastoralism, and philosophy, revealing in detail the formative influence exerted by the classics, both directly and through the mediation of Whig and American perspectives. In this analysis, we see how the classics not only supplied the principal basis for the U.S. Constitution but also contributed to the founders' conception of human nature, their understanding of virtue, and their sense of identity and purpose within a grand universal scheme. At the same time, we learn how the classics inspired obsessive fear of conspiracies against liberty, which poisoned relations between Federalists and Republicans.

The shrewd ancients who molded Western civilization still have much to teach us, Richard suggests. His account of the critical role they played in shaping our nation and our lives provides a valuable lesson in the transcendent power of the classics.

Library Journal

While it is well known that the Greek and Latin languages and literatures informed the educations and cultural vocabularies of 18th-century Americans, few studies have fully attempted to describe and explore the formative role of the classics for the leaders of the American Revolution and the framers of the Constitution. Providing abundant examples, historian Richard (Univ. of Southwestern Louisiana) argues compellingly that the classics played a definitive role in the minds of figures such as Jefferson, Adams, Madison, Washington, and many others, providing not only theories of constitutional government, human nature, and virtue but even models for emulation. Richard makes a strong case for the continued relevance of the study of the classics. A lucidly written and informative book; for informed lay readers and specialists.-- T.L. Cooksey, Armstrong State Coll., Savannah, Ga.

Booknews

Richard begins by examining how 18th-century social institutions in general and the education system in particular conditioned the American founders to venerate the classics. He then explores the founders' various uses of classical symbolism, models, "antimodels," mixed government theory, pastoralism, and philosophy, revealing in detail the formative influence exerted by the classics, both directly and through the mediation of Whig and American perspectives. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)