Justice_ What's the Right Thing to Do_ - Michael Sandel [87]
The idea that justice in allocating access to a university has something to do with the goods that universities properly pursue explains why selling admission is unjust. It also explains why it’s hard to separate questions of justice and rights from questions of honor and virtue. Universities give honorary degrees to celebrate those who display the virtues universities exist to promote. But in a way, every degree a university confers is an honorary degree.
Tying debates about justice to arguments about honor, virtue, and the meaning of goods may seem a recipe for hopeless disagreement. People hold different conceptions of honor and virtue. The proper mission of social institutions—whether universities, corporations, the military, the professions, or the political community generally—is contested and fraught. So it is tempting to seek a basis for justice and rights that keeps its distance from those controversies.
Much modern political philosophy tries to do just that. As we’ve seen, the philosophies of Kant and Rawls are bold attempts to find a basis for justice and rights that is neutral with respect to competing visions of the good life. It is now time to see if their project succeeds.
8. WHO DESERVES WHAT? / ARISTOTLE
Callie Smartt was a popular freshman cheerleader at Andrews High School in West Texas. The fact that she had cerebral palsy and moved about in a wheelchair didn’t dampen the enthusiasm she inspired among the football players and fans by her spirited presence on the sidelines at junior varsity games. But at the end of the season, Callie was kicked off the squad.1
At the urging of some other cheerleaders and their parents, school officials told Callie that, to make the squad the next year, she would have to try out like everyone else, in a rigorous gymnastic routine involving splits and tumbles. The head cheerleader’s father led the opposition to Callie’s inclusion on the cheerleading team. He claimed he was concerned for her safety. But Callie’s mother suspected the opposition was motivated by resentment of the acclaim Callie received.
Callie’s story raises two questions. One is a question of fairness. Should she be required to do gymnastics in order to qualify as a cheerleader, or is this requirement unfair, given her disability? One way of answering this question would be to invoke the principle of nondiscrimination: Provided she can perform well in the role, Callie should not be excluded from cheerleading simply because, through no fault of her own, she lacks the physical ability to perform gymnastic routines.
But the nondiscrimination principle isn’t much help, because it begs the question at the heart of the controversy: What does it mean to perform well in the role of cheerleader? Callie’s opponents claim that to be a good cheerleader you must be able to do tumbles and splits. That, after all, is how cheerleaders traditionally excite the crowd. Callie’s supporters would say this confuses the purpose of cheerleading with one way of achieving it. The real point of cheerleading is to inspire school spirit and energize the fans. When Callie roars up and down the sidelines in her wheelchair, waving her pom-poms and flashing her smile, she does well what cheerleaders are supposed to do—fire up the crowd. So in order to decide what the qualifications should be, we have to decide what’s essential to cheerleading, and what’s merely incidental.
The second question raised by Callie’s story is about resentment. What kind of resentment might motivate the head cheerleader’s father? Why is he bothered by the presence of Callie on the squad? It can’t be fear that Callie’s inclusion