The Tyranny of Merit: What's Become of the Common Good?
E1013629
"The Tyranny of Merit: What's Become of the Common Good?" is a philosophical and political critique by Michael Sandel that examines how meritocracy fuels inequality, moral judgment, and social division in contemporary democracies.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Tyranny of Merit: What's Become of the Common Good? canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T12985956 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Tyranny of Merit: What's Become of the Common Good? Context triple: [Michael Sandel, notableWork, The Tyranny of Merit: What's Become of the Common Good?]
-
A.
IQ in the Meritocracy
"IQ in the Meritocracy" is a controversial 1973 book by psychologist Richard J. Herrnstein that argues intelligence, as measured by IQ, plays a central role in determining social and economic status in modern societies.
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B.
The Price of Inequality
The Price of Inequality is a book by economist Joseph Stiglitz that analyzes the causes and consequences of growing economic inequality and argues for policy reforms to create a fairer, more stable society.
-
C.
The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better
The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better is a influential socio-economic book arguing, through comparative data, that societies with lower income inequality achieve better outcomes in health, social cohesion, and overall well-being.
-
D.
The Spirit Level
The Spirit Level is a 1996 poetry collection by Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney that reflects on balance, memory, and the political and personal landscapes of Ireland.
-
E.
The Acquisitive Society
The Acquisitive Society is a 1920 book by British social critic R. H. Tawney that offers a moral and economic critique of capitalism and argues for a more socially responsible and egalitarian economic order.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Tyranny of Merit: What's Become of the Common Good? Target entity description: "The Tyranny of Merit: What's Become of the Common Good?" is a philosophical and political critique by Michael Sandel that examines how meritocracy fuels inequality, moral judgment, and social division in contemporary democracies.
-
A.
IQ in the Meritocracy
"IQ in the Meritocracy" is a controversial 1973 book by psychologist Richard J. Herrnstein that argues intelligence, as measured by IQ, plays a central role in determining social and economic status in modern societies.
-
B.
The Price of Inequality
The Price of Inequality is a book by economist Joseph Stiglitz that analyzes the causes and consequences of growing economic inequality and argues for policy reforms to create a fairer, more stable society.
-
C.
The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better
The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better is a influential socio-economic book arguing, through comparative data, that societies with lower income inequality achieve better outcomes in health, social cohesion, and overall well-being.
-
D.
The Spirit Level
The Spirit Level is a 1996 poetry collection by Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney that reflects on balance, memory, and the political and personal landscapes of Ireland.
-
E.
The Acquisitive Society
The Acquisitive Society is a 1920 book by British social critic R. H. Tawney that offers a moral and economic critique of capitalism and argues for a more socially responsible and egalitarian economic order.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
book
ⓘ
non-fiction book ⓘ philosophical work ⓘ political philosophy book ⓘ |
| author |
Michael J. Sandel
ⓘ
linked to:
Michael Sandel
|
| centralArgument |
market-driven conceptions of merit contribute to social division
ⓘ
meritocracy can generate hubris among winners and humiliation among losers ⓘ structural inequalities and luck are underestimated in accounts of success ⓘ success is often attributed too strongly to individual effort and talent ⓘ the rhetoric of merit undermines solidarity and the common good ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| criticizes |
meritocratic ideal
ⓘ
neoliberalism ⓘ technocratic liberalism ⓘ |
| form |
audiobook
ⓘ
ebook ⓘ hardcover ⓘ paperback ⓘ |
| genre |
political non-fiction
ⓘ
political philosophy ⓘ social criticism ⓘ |
| influencedDebateOn |
ethics of success and failure
ⓘ
role of luck in distributive justice ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| notableFor |
linking meritocracy to the rise of populist anger
ⓘ
public debate on fairness and success in contemporary capitalism ⓘ |
| philosophicalTradition |
communitarianism
ⓘ
political liberalism ⓘ |
| proposes |
a politics oriented to the common good
ⓘ
a renewed focus on the dignity of work ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 2020 ⓘ |
| publisher | Farrar, Straus and Giroux ⓘ |
| relatedWorkByAuthor |
Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?
ⓘ
What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets ⓘ |
| setting | contemporary Western democracies ⓘ |
| subject |
common good
ⓘ
democracy ⓘ elite education ⓘ globalization ⓘ inequality ⓘ meritocracy ⓘ moral philosophy ⓘ political polarization ⓘ populism ⓘ social justice ⓘ |
| timePeriodDiscussed |
early 21st century
ⓘ
late 20th century ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Tyranny of Merit: What's Become of the Common Good? Description of subject: "The Tyranny of Merit: What's Become of the Common Good?" is a philosophical and political critique by Michael Sandel that examines how meritocracy fuels inequality, moral judgment, and social division in contemporary democracies.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.