Sunday, November 14, 2010

Justice with Micheal Sandel

What's the right thing to do?

by Micheal Sandel (http://www.justiceharvard.org/)

6 comments:

Scot said...

You might like this ethical scenario.

oceanwhale said...

Here is a question - if you 'cheated' and you don't think you did anything wrong, would you admit to it later so that you do not get punished? We are social animals with solid survival instincts, aren't we? To be honest, I am not sure what I would do. But this professor was so unpleasant and full of himself/crap, I would not want to associate with him at all... Thank you for the link, Scot.

Scot said...

One of the difficulties I have with questions of ethics is that they always seem to be presented in a vacuum, seldom taking into account things like game theory or other unique variables. Would you do this, if that? It's tempting for me to say 'no, i wouldn't do that,' but it's never that easy is it? What if EVERYbody did 'that' and my refusal to do so (cause of my lofty ethics) placed me at a significant disadvantage? Think of the steroid plague that has afflicted professional athletes. Here's another dangerous argument - what if my cheating served 'the greater good?' What if I had to cheat just a little to counter the threat of a much greater cheat? Think war and politics. What if I was given a truly exhaustive choice of either cheating a little against a benevolent party or cheating a lot against a malevolent party? Which is more ethical? It is in this fluid and uncertain world of ethics where I have envy for your typical sociopath. They are immune to the paralysis of ethical conundrums.

oceanwhale said...

: ) I agree with you. I also think that there are different scales at which the problem manifests itself. And although that there is rarely a 'black and white' solution, it seems that different feelings/emotions come into play in any one of them. Somewhat on a tangent, have you heard that "The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic." Another interesting thought experiment is to imagine kids growing in a 'vacuum' - what ethical system will they develop?

Scot, I am in Toronto December 25-31. Will I see you?

Scot said...

I'm going to guess Stalin for $200, but it could well be apocryphal. I imagine kids kids reared in a vacuum would grow up with a primitive and gratification based ethical system, and unsurprisingly be very difficult to deal with.

You will definitely see me between those two days. I will keep you posted of my plans.

oceanwhale said...

Cultural Pluralism