Michael Sandel and the limits of justice

Author(s)

Carla Henriete Bevilacqua Piccolo

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Direito (FD/SBD)
• Defense date: 2020-10-01

Examining board members

Ronaldo Porto Macedo Júnior; Alberto Ribeiro Gonçalves de Barros; Celso Fernandes Campilongo; Alvaro de Vita

• Advisor: Ronaldo Porto Macedo Júnior

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate Michael Sandel\'s work in order to better understand its potential as a critical project against the egalitarian liberalism of theorists such as John Rawls and Ronald Dworkin, the main targets of most of his intellectual career. The thesis\' central argument is that Sandel\'s enterprise fails for three distinct, albeit interconnected reasons: First, Sandel fails as an interpreter of both Rawls\'s and Dworkin\'s liberal theories; Second, Sandel confuses, in his criticism, liberal political philosophy with liberal political science - that is, egalitarian liberalism as a theoretical formulation with liberalism as a political institutionalized practice, or what he calls \"the dominant public philosophy\"; Lastly, the third reason why Sandel\'s theoretical project fails is that, aside from his direct criticism of liberalism, his few texts of a more propositional character lack a theory of rights or some other clear statement as to the limits of state coercive action in a political model such as the one he defends. A critical and analytical study of his work reveals the limits of a theory that draws on broad conceptual categories. Sandel\'s work compels us to navigate through a vast territory of concepts, conceptions, systems of thought and dialogues of difficult translation among different authors. Hopefully, we end up with a privileged view, much more consistent and clearer, both of the terms in which the debates are conducted and of the limits of the concepts involved in contemporary moral and political philosophy. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 17/21143-5 - Michael Sandel and the limits of justice
• Grantee: Carla Henriete Bevilacqua Piccolo
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate