Blavatnik School of Government (Oxford)

In Conversation with Michael Sandel

In a high‑profile conversation at Oxford’s Blavatnik School, Nobel‑level philosopher Michael Sandel received the Berggruen Prize for Philosophy and Culture. The dialogue, hosted by Dean Nairi Woods and Berggruen Foundation director Nicole Grunwald‑Silver, explored Sandel’s lifelong mission to bring philosophical reasoning into the public square and to interrogate the moral foundations of contemporary politics. Sandel traced his intellectual trajectory from a political‑junkie undergraduate to a scholar who challenged John Rawls’s liberal neutrality. He argued that the insistence on a value‑free public sphere created a moral vacuum that allowed market‑first ideologies—embodied by Reagan and Thatcher—to dominate policy without ethical scrutiny. His subsequent works, including *Democracy’s Discontents*, propose a civic conception of freedom that emphasizes collective self‑rule rather than consumerist choice. Illustrative anecdotes punctuated the discussion, notably Sandel’s teenage attempt to invite Governor Reagan to a high‑school debate with a six‑pound bag of jelly beans—a story that underscored the early awareness of political theater. He also highlighted how neoliberal policies turned economic disparity into a crisis of social respect, fueling the grievance politics exploited by figures such as Donald Trump and Steve Bannon. The conversation concludes that restoring a robust public philosophy is essential for democratic health. Sandel urges policymakers, educators, and citizens to cultivate civic virtues, re‑anchor freedom in participatory governance, and confront the market‑faith that underpins much of today’s inequality. His call for a renewed civic discourse resonates amid growing populist backlash and debates over antitrust regulation of big tech.