2. Rationale: We study Justice in
order to understand why
people believe what they
believe.
borrowed from Michael Sandel’s discussion guide
3. True or false?
1) Torture, as a matter of principle, is always
morally wrong.
borrowed from Michael Sandel’s discussion guide
4. !
True or false?
Question 2: The morality of an action is
determined by whether, compared to the
other available options, it maximises the sum
total of happiness of all the people affected
by it.
!
!
borrowed from Michael Sandel’s discussion guide
5. !
True or false?
Question 3: It is always, and everywhere,
wrong to cause another person's death -
assuming they wish to stay alive - if this
outcome is avoidable.
!
!
borrowed from Michael Sandel’s discussion guide
6. !
!
True or false?
Question 4: If you can save the lives of
innocent people without reducing the sum
total of human happiness, and without
putting your own life at risk, you are morally
obliged to do so.
!
!
!
borrowed from Michael Sandel’s discussion guide
7. Suppose you are driving through a narrow
tunnel and a worker falls onto the road in
front of you. There is not enough time for
you to stop. If you keep straight, you will
hit the worker and kill him, but if you
swerve left into oncoming traffic, you will
collide with a school bus and kill at least
five children. What’s the right thing to do?
Does utilitarianism get the right answer?
8. Suppose ten thousand innocent civilians
live next to a munitions factory in a
country at war. If you bomb the factory,
all of them will die. If you don’t bomb the
factory, it will be used to produce bombs
that will be dropped on fifty thousand
innocent civilians in another country.
What’s the right thing to do? Does
utilitarianism get the right answer?
9. Suppose a man has planted a bomb in
New York City, and it will explode in
twenty-four hours unless the police are
able to find it. Should it be legal for the
police to use torture to extract information
from the suspected bomber? Does
utilitarianism get the right answer?
10. Now suppose the man who has planted
the bomb will not reveal the location
unless an innocent member of his family is
tortured. Should it be legal for the police
to torture innocent people, if that is truly
the only way to discover the location of a
large bomb? Does utilitarianism have the
right answer?
11. When is utilitarianism correct and when is
it not? Why? Can something be for the
“greater good” and still be wrong?
13. Can you increase equality without
decreasing liberty?
`
!
Imagine a equal world of distributed
resources. Everyone has the same stuff.
Unfortunately, you are LeBron James.
People want to pay you 5$ a game to play
for them. Do you have to give it back?
Why would you ever play basketball at all?
14. Is taxation for redistribution forced labor?
!
Imagine you are Bill Gates and you are
taxed for two hours and the money is
given to a poor person. `
Are you now being
forced--against your will--to work for that
person? Does this make you a temporary
slave?
15. Does taxation for redistribution violate
historical definitions of justice?
!
Imagine you worked very hard becoming
a heart surgeon. Now, `
you make a lot of
money saving lives. Should the
government have the right to take your
money and give it to someone else?
16. Under what conditions does a
government have the right to take
money from you and give it to someone
else? What situations don’t qualify.
• If you got the money `
illegally
• If you broke the law
• If the other person needed it to survive
• If enough people voted to take it from you.
• If the government were going to war and
needed it to buy weapons
18. Imagine a storekeeper who
could cheat a young child who
comes to her shop but decides
not to because `
she’s worried
her customers find out.
!
Is she acting morally?
19. Imagine a teacher who loves
helping children because it
makes `
him feel good.
Is he acting morally?
20. Suppose someone rescues a
child from drowning because
he wants `
a reward.
Is he acting morally?
21. What should we consider as a law
`
of morality?
The Categorical Imperative--
"Act only according to that maxim
whereby you can, at the same time,
will that it should become a
universal law.
22. What about freedom and it’s
connection to justice?
`
!
•Is a person who is addicted to
cigarettes free?
•Is a person who eats a boatload of
pistachio ice cream free ?
•If the government tries to stop
people from buying large sodas are
they restricting freedom?
27. Should the children of rich parents
be allowed to get very expensive,
private math lessons, or singing
lessons, or basketball lessons? What if
such lessons give `
them a huge,
unearned advantage in the race for
jobs, careers, and wealth? Is it just for
poor children to have much lower
prospects as a result?
28. 3rd principle:
`
!
There should be no differences
in income and wealth, except
those differences that make even
the least advantaged members
of society better off.
29. !
1. Is it true that you can’t really claim
credit for your upbringing? Surely, your
habits and temperaments today are partly
the result of your upbringing. Does this
mean that you don’t really deserve what
you get from making `
an effort?
!
2. Think of some of the advantages that
you have in your life. Do you deserve them
more than other people who lack them? If
so, why? If not, should these advantages be
provided to everyone?
30. !
3. Do you think it’s unjust if some
people do not get to vote in
elections merely because they are a
woman or merely because of the
color of their skin?
4. Do you think it’s `
unjust if some
people earn much less money and
are much worse off than others
merely because they are a woman
or a member of a racial or ethnic
minority?
!
31. !
5. If you answered “ yes” to the last
two questions, do you think it’s also
unjust if some people are much
worse off than others merely
because they were born with fewer
talents or with a debilitating `
disease
and the need for expensive
medicines? Why should people be
worse off merely because of the way
they were born?
!
!
33. 1. "Belief in a transcendent order, or body of
natural law, which rules society as well as
conscience.”
2. "Affection for the proliferating variety and
mystery of human existence, as opposed to
the narrowing uniformity, egalitarianism, and
utilitarian aims of most radical systems;”
`
3. "Conviction that civilized society requires
orders and classes, as against the notion of a
'classless society'."
Canons of Conservatism
34. 4. "Persuasion that freedom and property are closely
linked: separate property from private possession, and
the Leviathan becomes master of all."
5. "Faith in prescription and distrust of 'sophisters,
calculators, and economists' who would reconstruct
society upon abstract designs."
`
6. "Recognition that change may not be salutary reform:
hasty innovation may be a devouring conflagration,
rather than a torch of progress."
Canons of Conservatism
