By Bae Ji-sook
Before looking at Michael J. Sandel’s new book “Why Morality,” we need to consider its predecessor.
Gimmyoung Publishers hit the jackpot earlier this year with one of the biggest “unlikely” bestsellers, “Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do?”
As its philosophical title indicates, the book itself isn’t an easy read. After all, modern society seems to have long distanced itself from contemplating morals or justice, especially in Korea where giving remissions to villains or criminals for the sake of the economy comes easy.
The author, Harvard University professor Michael Sandel, however, looks into every bit of society’s growing numbness toward what he considers is a very essential part of our lives with bountiful fables, citations and most of all, real life stories.
Korean readers responded by buying more than 500,000 copies in less than six months, which is considered a miracle for a piece of work from the humanities.
Whether it was out of worry or fascination, coincidence or a swift response, President Lee Myung-bak said he read the book during his summer vacation and later announced on Liberation Day (Aug.15) that the new keywords for the government will be a “fair society,” apparently inspired by Sandel’s assertations.
Now, the Korea Economic Daily’s publishing department has Sandel’s latest release, “Why Morality” to further heat up the trend.
In this book, he seems more determined to touch on thorny social issues and throws out much more daring questions to readers.
The content is still far from easy to mull, filled with big names in philosophy that may be unfamiliar to most.
However, every word, and reading between the lines, is worth the time.
Sandel challenges readers to reawaken their sense of morality. He says the reason the Republicans were able to defeat the Democrats in the 2004 U.S. presidential election was because the conservatives were able to put “morality” to the forefront while the more liberal democrats were portrayed as fence sitters.
It almost seems like he’s trying to say, “If you don’t like their hegemony, you should come up with a better one to defeat it.”
He then throws up rows of questions: To what extent should lies and empty words of politicians be tolerated? Can we really accept abortion and homosexuality? Is embryo cloning a new future or another risky sin? How can we achieve fair distribution?
The professor navigates various philosophers ranging from Kant to Rawls, then Dewey, to prove that the questions aren’t easy to answer, but at the same time require our focus.
He urges readers to pay more attention to controversial moral issues because it is crucial for us to build a society that can embrace differences, where moral and ethical values are still alive, and strive to create a fair world.
It seems quite apparent that Sandel’s new book might trigger another boom in society. Let’s wait and see what politicians and administrators have to say about Chapter 5: “The Morality of Politicians.”
bjs@koreatimes.co.kr