The Lens of Morality, Dignity, and the Common Good
The Lens of Morality, Dignity, and the Common Good

Summary/Abstract: Can meritocracy become a tyrant, an unjust ruler? Has it? Both answered in the affirmative, these are the central questions of Michael J. Sandel’s new book The Tyranny of Merit. In a meritocracy, the winners have earned their place, supposedly at least, and so have the losers. What could possibly go wrong? Quite a bit, it turns out. The winners come to suffer from hubris; the losers suffer humiliation. Sandel argues that more than anything else, this is the real venom that has poisoned public life in recent years. Quite apart from its wanting implementation, is meritocracy then even the right ideal by which to run our lives, our societies, our morality?

• Details
• Contents