- [Michael] These days, our civic life
isn't going very well.
Instead of debating our differences,
we shout past one another.
We need to learn how to reason together
about hard, moral questions,
even where we disagree.
That's what we'll do
in my course, Justice.
My name is Michael Sandel.
Over the years, thousands
of students have joined me
to debate some of the
big ethical questions
we face in politics, and
in our everyday lives.
- Do I think I should be
able to bid for a baby?
I'm not -.
Sure.
(laughs)
It's a market.
- I just feel like in a
situation that desperate,
you have to do what you
have to do to survive.
- [Michael] What do you say to Marcuse?
We turn to some of the great
philosophers of the past.
Do you think Bentham is wrong to say
the right thing to do is to add
up the collective happiness?
Do you think he's wrong about that?
- I don't think he's wrong,
but I think Mercuse is
smarter in any case.
- Well then Bentham has to be wrong.
If you're right, he's wrong.
- Okay, then he's wrong.
(laughter)
- Alright, thank you.
Well done.
Then we turn to the present to
test the philosophers' ideas
with depressing moral issues of our time.
- I think that what happened in the past
has no bearing on what happens today.
And I think that
discriminating based on race
should always be wrong.
- White people have had
their own affirmative action
in this country for more than 400 years.
It's called nepotism and quid pro quo.
So there's nothing wrong with correcting
the injustice and discrimination
that's been done to black
people for 400 years.
(applause)
- This fall, we gather again,
not in Sanders Theater,
but from wherever you are.
Nadia, a Harvard College student,
you're against this proposal.
Let's go to the Harvard Medical School.
Lawson, what do you think?
Jonathan, in the Harvard Law School?
Angela at the Harvard Business School?
- I would say, yes, we should reopen.
The cost of the shutdown
has significant impact
on lives as well.
- Birukti in Harvard
College, what do you think?
- Just because we are doing it,
and that's what our society is,
and that's how it functions,
doesn't mean that that's
the way that it should be.
We're basically trading money for a life.
- Ilan, at Harvard Business school.
- I think it is morally acceptable
as long as you believe that
the person taking that risk
is making an informed choice.
- My point is just because
that's the way you do it
doesn't mean it's right.
- I think that's right.
I guess the assumption
I have in my argument
was that a sufficient
social safety net exists
such that people aren't
forced into that decision.
- The philosophers haven't changed,
but the world certainly has.
At a time of pandemic
and racial reckoning,
questions of justice have
an urgency as never before.
Who should be first in line
to receive a corona virus vaccine?
Is it fair that many of those
we now call essential workers
are among the lowest paid in our society?
And how should this country come to terms
with the legacy of slavery and racism?
Would reparations be just?
And so I invite you to
join in this new episode
of an ancient journey,
this time in the company of students
from across the university
to think through the
meaning of a just society.
To figure out what you believe and why.
(gentle music)
