A Politics of Moral Engagement

Michael J. Sandel is the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government at Harvard University, where he has taught political philosophy since 1980. His book Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? should be required reading for all citizens today. Below are excerpts that provide a much better path for finding solutions that have the power to bring Americans together – instead of widening the gap even more.

Today most of our political arguments revolve around welfare and freedom — increasing economic output and respecting people’s rights. For many people, talk of virtue in politics brings to mind religious conservatives telling people how to live. But this is not the only way that conceptions of virtue and the common good can inform politics. The challenge is to imagine a politics that takes moral and spiritual questions seriously, but brings them to bear on broad economic and civic concerns, not only on sex and abortion. . . What might a new politics of the common good look like? Here are some possible themes.

Read the complete blog at -- http://tovcenter.blogspot.com/2016/05/a-politics-of-moral-engagement.html