Self-knowledge is like lost innocence; however unsettling you find it, it can never be 'unthought' or 'unknown'.
Michael SandelRead
First, individual rights cannot be sacrificed for the sake of the general good, and second, the principles of justice that specify these rights cannot be premised on any particular vision of the good life. What justifies the rights is not that they maximize the general welfare or otherwise promote the good, but rather that they comprise a fair framework within which individuals and groups can choose their own values and ends, consistent with a similar liberty for others.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Individual rights should not be compromised for the greater good, as justice must be based on fairness rather than specific notions of what constitutes a good life.
This quote by Michael Sandel emphasizes the importance of individual rights in any societal framework. It argues against sacrificing personal freedoms for the sake of collective welfare, suggesting that justice should serve as a foundation that respects diverse values and allows individuals to pursue their own paths while ensuring that others have the same liberty. This perspective encourages a fair balance where rights and freedoms are protected, rather than overridden by majority opinions or utilitarian principles.
Themes
Individual RightsJusticeLibertyFairnessValues
In practice
Example use cases
During a debate on public policy, this quote can be used to argue for the protection of individual freedoms over majority rule.
More from Michael Sandel
All quotes →If you pay a child a dollar to read a book, as some schools have tried, you not only create an expectation that reading makes you money, you also run the risk of depriving the child for ever of the value of it. Markets are not innocent.
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I find this in all these places I've been travelling - from India to China, to Japan and Europe and to Brazil - there is a frustration with the terms of public discourse, with a kind of absence of discussion of questions of justice and ethics and of values.
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The simplest way of understanding justice is giving people what they deserve. This idea goes back to Aristotle. The real difficulty begins with figuring out who deserves what and why.
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To argue about justice is unavoidably to argue about virtues, about substantive moral and even spiritual questions.
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Democracy does not require perfect equality, but it does require that citizens share a common life. What matters is that people of different backgrounds and social positions encounter one another, and bump up against one another, in the course of ordinary life.
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