

Justice
2011 · BBC Four · 30 min · 1 season
S01E08 · The Good Life
Wed, 16 Mar, 7:30 am
Lecture using controversies over same-sex marriage and abortion to examine whether it is necessary to reason about the good life in order to decide what rights people have.
About
Professor Michael Sandel presents a series of lectures from his Harvard undergraduate course in Political Philosophy.
Episodes
- E01
The Moral Side of Murder
Wed, 26 Jan· 30 minProfessor Michael Sandel presents the first in a series of lectures from his Harvard undergraduate course in Political Philosophy. He explores the morality of murder and asks whether there can ever be a case for killing.
- E02
The Case for Cannibalism
Wed, 2 Feb· 30 minMichael Sandel presents a lecture from his Harvard course on justice, exploring Jeremy Bentham's utilitarian philosophy with reference to an infamous 19th century legal case.
- E03
How to Measure Pleasure
Wed, 9 Feb· 30 minMichael Sandel's lecture uses Hamlet and The Simpsons to explore John Stuart Mill's theory that utilitarianism can make room for a distinction between higher and lower pleasures.
- E04
A Lesson in Lying
Wed, 16 Feb· 30 minHarvard professor Michael Sandel examines Immanuel Kant's stringent theory of morality, which says that telling any type of lie is a violation of one's own dignity.
- E05
What's a Fair Start?
Wed, 23 Feb· 30 minMichael Sandel's lecture looks at John Rawls, who argued that for a fair social system one must start from an imaginary position where everyone has the same opportunity to succeed.
- E06
The Good Citizen
Wed, 2 Mar· 30 minMichael Sandel's lecture on the philosophy of justice links Aristotle's belief that the purpose of politics is to promote the virtue of a country's citizenry with the game of golf.
- E07
Freedom vs Fit
Wed, 9 Mar· 30 minMichael Sandel's lecture looks at the issue of individual rights and the freedom to choose, and he addresses one of the most glaring objections to Aristotle's views on freedom.
- E08
The Good Life
Wed, 16 Mar· 30 minLecture using controversies over same-sex marriage and abortion to examine whether it is necessary to reason about the good life in order to decide what rights people have.
Cast

Michael J. Sandel
Presenter