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moistforchoice 's review for:
Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?
by Michael J. Sandel
Sandel teases apart the many interwoven schools of thought and philosophies that inform society's idea of moral justice. I believe it is important to examine and reflect on our own perception of justice and understand where it is rooted in. Working in a women's rights organisation I am aware of the schools of thought that inform the ideas of justice that we have fit our type of feminism into, scaffolded by the beliefs of the founders, as well as the context of the country.
Sandel explores justice as a duty, contrasted with justice practiced through utilitarianism. Justice as a duty meant that justice is a moral right because human beings are rational beings, worthy of respect and dignity. This is contrasted with the idea of utilitarianism, which states that justice means maximising the total sum of happiness experienced in any given situation (baring harming someone). Another philosophy contrasting utilitarianism is libertarianism, which central claim is human freedom to do whatever we want with the things we owe. He goes on to break down our idea of equality, not just in terms of what that entails - which is what directly informs our current social structure and what people talk about - but why and how we have decided that equality matters. He discusses the idea of deservedness, loyalty (to our own ingroups) and correcting past wrongs as part of the equality conversation.
What Sandel does with each of these philosophies is to take real life scenarios and demonstrate how decisions are made collectively by societies based on these unspoken, yet majority-agreed upon rules. Why do we feel that some things cannot be bought and some things should? Laws around surrogacy has been hotly debated because while in principle, the libertarian idea that people have freedom to do what they want sounds great, reality is that of exploitation and oppression, and many, if not all of us (depending on what you subscribe to) don't make choices that are absolutely free.
As someone who is an amateur in philosophy and ethics, this is a great starter text.
Sandel explores justice as a duty, contrasted with justice practiced through utilitarianism. Justice as a duty meant that justice is a moral right because human beings are rational beings, worthy of respect and dignity. This is contrasted with the idea of utilitarianism, which states that justice means maximising the total sum of happiness experienced in any given situation (baring harming someone). Another philosophy contrasting utilitarianism is libertarianism, which central claim is human freedom to do whatever we want with the things we owe. He goes on to break down our idea of equality, not just in terms of what that entails - which is what directly informs our current social structure and what people talk about - but why and how we have decided that equality matters. He discusses the idea of deservedness, loyalty (to our own ingroups) and correcting past wrongs as part of the equality conversation.
What Sandel does with each of these philosophies is to take real life scenarios and demonstrate how decisions are made collectively by societies based on these unspoken, yet majority-agreed upon rules. Why do we feel that some things cannot be bought and some things should? Laws around surrogacy has been hotly debated because while in principle, the libertarian idea that people have freedom to do what they want sounds great, reality is that of exploitation and oppression, and many, if not all of us (depending on what you subscribe to) don't make choices that are absolutely free.
As someone who is an amateur in philosophy and ethics, this is a great starter text.