Justice

If you had to choose between killing one person to save the lives of five others and doing nothing, even though you knew that five people would die ri...

Sandel presents some contemporary cases in which cost-benefit analysis was used to put a dollar value on human life. The cases give rise to several ob...

Sandel introduces the libertarian notion that redistributive taxation—taxing the rich to give to the poor—is akin to forced labor. If you live in a so...

The philosopher John Locke believes that individuals have certain rights—to life, liberty, and property—which were given to us as human beings in the...

During the Civil War, men drafted into war had the option of hiring substitutes to fight in their place. Many students say they find that policy unjus...

Professor Sandel introduces Immanuel Kant, a challenging but influential philosopher. Kant rejects the notion that morality is about calculating conse...

Immanuel Kant believed that telling a lie, even a white lie, is a violation of one’s own dignity. Sandel introduces the modern philosopher, John Rawls...

Rawls argues that even meritocracy—a distributive system that rewards effort—doesn’t go far enough in leveling the playing field because those who are...

Students discuss the pros and cons of affirmative action. Should we try to correct for inequality in educational backgrounds by taking race into consi...

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...

Communitarians argue that, in addition to voluntary and universal duties, we also have obligations of membership, solidarity, and loyalty. These oblig...

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...