Justice with Michael Sandel

If you had to choose between (1) killing one person to save the lives of five others and (2) doing nothing even though you knew that five people would...

Today, companies and governments often use Jeremy Benthams utilitarian logic under the name of cost-benefit analysis. Sandel presents some contemporar...

Sandel introduces the libertarian conception of individual rights, according to which only a minimal state is justified. Libertarians argue that gover...

The philosopher John Locke believes that individuals have certain rights so fundamental that no government can ever take them away. These rights—to l...

During the Civil War, men drafted into war had the option of hiring substitutes to fight in their place. Professor Sandel asks students whether they c...

Professor Sandel introduces Immanuel Kant, a challenging but influential philosopher. Kant rejects utilitarianism. He argues that each of us has cer...

Immanuel Kants stringent theory of morality allows for no exceptions. Kant believed that telling a lie, even a white lie, is a violation of ones own...

Is it just to tax the rich to help the poor? John Rawls says we should answer this question by asking what principles you would choose to govern the d...

Sandel describes the 1996 court case of a white woman named Cheryl Hopwood who was denied admission to a Texas law school, even though she had higher...

Aristotle believes the purpose of politics is to promote and cultivate the virtue of its citizens. The telos or goal of the state and political commun...

Professor Sandel presents Kants objections to Aristotles theory. Kant believes politics must respect individual freedom. People must always respect ot...

If principles of justice depend on the moral or intrinsic worth of the ends that rights serve, how should we deal with the fact that people hold diffe...