[Harvard University],Justice: What's The Right Thing To Do?

[Mr. Man-wai Chang]

Harvard University
Justice: What's The Right Thing To Do?

Episode 01 "THE MORAL SIDE OF MURDER" - YouTube

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBdfcR-8hEY>

PART ONE: THE MORAL SIDE OF MURDER

If you had to choose between (1) killing one person to save the lives of
five others and (2) doing nothing even though you knew that five people
would die right before your eyes if you did nothing—what would you do?
What would be the right thing to do? Thats the hypothetical scenario
Professor Michael Sandel uses to launch his course on moral reasoning.
After the majority of students votes for killing the one person in order
to save the lives of five others, Sandel presents three similar moral
conundrums—each one artfully designed to make the decision more
difficult. As students stand up to defend their conflicting choices, it
becomes clear that the assumptions behind our moral reasoning are often
contradictory, and the question of what is right and what is wrong is
not always black and white.

PART TWO: THE CASE FOR CANNIBALISM

Sandel introduces the principles of utilitarian philosopher, Jeremy
Bentham, with a famous nineteenth century legal case involving a
shipwrecked crew of four. After nineteen days lost at sea, the captain
decides to kill the weakest amongst them, the young cabin boy, so that
the rest can feed on his blood and body to survive. The case sets up a
classroom debate about the moral validity of utilitarianism—and its
doctrine that the right thing to do is whatever produces "the greatest
good for the greatest number."

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBdfcR-8hEY>