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Michael Sandel

Michael Sandel Quotes

Philosopher

Michael Sandel is a renowned American philosopher known for his contributions to ethics and political philosophy. His writings and teaching style have been well-received by students and the public, particularly for his in-depth exploration of moral and justice issues.

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Famous Michael Sandel Quotes

“One of the appeals of markets, as a public philosophy, is they seem to spare us the need to engage in public arguments about the meaning of goods. So markets seem to enable us to be non-judgmental about values. But I think that's a mistake.”

Thinking Needs Philosophy Seems Values Mistake Argument Appeals Goods Spares Judgmental Non Judgmental

Author:Michael Sandel

“There are really exercises in a kind of consumerist ethic that I think don't have the same moral weight as medicine or health.”

Thinking Kind Moral Exercise Ethics Weight Medicine

Author:Michael Sandel

“Very often when we aim at the best, or what we may think is the best for our children, we aim really at lesser things, such as getting into a certain college.”

Thinking May Children Certain College Our Children Aim

Author:Michael Sandel

“I think very often when we think we are aiming at the best for our children, what we are really doing is trying to position them for competitive success in an intensely driven kind of society. I'm not sure that always leads to the good life or to happiness.”

Thinking Trying Kind Children Position Our Children Driven Not Sure Good Life

Author:Michael Sandel

“I think part of being a parent, to love one's child, is to accept them as they come - not to see them as instruments of our ambition or as creatures to be molded, as if they were themselves commodities.”

Ifs Thinking Children Parent Accepting Creatures Ambition Instruments Commodity Being A Parent

Author:Michael Sandel

“I think too often in our society parents, who may have good impulses, overreach and try to mold and shape and direct their child.”

Thinking Trying May Children Parent Shapes Direct Impulse Our Society Mold

Author:Michael Sandel

“I think people who want to use genetic technologies to gain a competitive edge for their children are engaging in a kind of overreaching that could really undermine our appreciation of children as gifts for which we should be grateful and, instead, to view them as products or instruments that are there to be molded and directed.”

People Thinking Want Should Kind Children Use Views Technology Products Gains Instruments Grateful Edges Appreciation Be Grateful Engaging Overreaching

Author:Michael Sandel

“I would include non-medical sex selection as one of those practices that I think is morally questionable and that can carry adverse social consequences.”

Thinking Social Sex Practice Consequence Medical Selection Adverse Questionable

Author:Michael Sandel

“The norm of unconditional parental love, I think, depends on the fact that we don't pick and choose the traits of our children in the way that we pick and choose the features of a car we might order, or a consumer good.”

Thinking Way Children Facts Might Order Car Depends Picks Our Children Consumers Features Traits Norm Unconditional Parental Parental Love

Author:Michael Sandel

“The other effect that I worry about is the effect on the parent, that the moral teaching of humility and of the limits to our control that parenthood teaches- - that that will be lost and that we will begin to think of children more as consumer goods than as gifts that we can't fully control and for which we aren't fully responsible.”

Thinking Children Lost Parent Moral Teach Worry Teaching Effects Humility Limits Responsible Consumers Goods Parenthood

Author:Michael Sandel

“I do not argue that nature is sacrosanct in the sense that we must never tamper with nature. That would disempower, really, all of medicine. That would mean that we can't combat dread diseases - malaria, polio, all of which are given by nature, if one thinks about it.”

Ifs Thinking Mean Given Disease Medicine Arguing Combat Dread Malaria Polio

Author:Michael Sandel

“I think it would be a great tragedy to devote medical resources and genetic technological breakthroughs to purposes that are not to do with health or medicine, but instead are to do with satisfying the desires that are created by the consumer society.”

Thinking Would Be Desire Purpose Resources Tragedy Medicine Medical Consumers Satisfying Technological Breakthrough Great Tragedy

Author:Michael Sandel

“I'm a supporter of embryonic stem cell research. I do think there are very important moral and also religious questions at stake in the debate over embryonic stem cell research.”

Thinking Important Religious Moral Research Debate Cells Stakes Stem Supporter Stem Cell Stem Cell Research Embryonic Stem Cell Research Embryonic Stem Cells

Author:Michael Sandel

“I do think it is very important that the religious communities do try to bring their teachings and their insights to bear on the stem cell debate and on the debate about genetic engineering.”

Thinking Trying Important Community Religious Teaching Bears Insight Debate Cells Engineering Stem Stem Cell Genetic Engineering Religious Community

Author:Michael Sandel

“Over the past three decades, markets and market thinking have been reaching into spheres of life traditionally governed by non-market norms. As a result, we've drifted from having a market economy to becoming a market society.”

Thinking Past Economy Norm Over The Past

Author:Michael Sandel

“Most economics that is taught in college and universities today projects itself as a value-neutral science. This claim has always been open to question, but I think it's especially in doubt today.”

Thinking Today Doubt College

Author:Michael Sandel

“Economics has increasingly become the science of human behavior in general, and it's all the more unlikely to think that it can possibly be value-free - and, in fact, it isn't. Economics rests on un-argued assumptions that need to be examined.”

Thinking Behavior Assumption Human Behavior

Author:Michael Sandel

“I think the reason we might hesitate to pay cash to students for doing well on tests or getting good grades or reading books is that we sense that the monetary payment is an extrinsic reward.”

Thinking Book Reason Reading Students Reading Books Monetary Good Grades

Author:Michael Sandel

“There is a tendency to think that if we engage too directly with moral questions in politics, that's a recipe for disagreement, and for that matter, a recipe for intolerance and coercion.”

Ifs Thinking Matter Inspiration Motivation Moral Tendencies Intolerance Recipes Coercion Disagreement

Author:Michael Sandel

About the Author

Born: March 5, 1953
Known for: Philosopher
Quotes: 68

Related Topics

Thinking Children Moral Humans Kind Way Ifs Parent Values Debate Justice Our Children People Trying Consumers Doe Goods Social Tradition Citizens

Popular Topics

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Books & Sources

What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of MarketsRelated source material

Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?Related source material

Public Philosophy: Essays on Morality in PoliticsRelated source material

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