Justice: Chapter Three

In this chapter, Sandel critiques the libertarian position.  Libertarianism might be of some interest since there is a libertarian seeking the republican nomination to the presidency, viz. Ron Paul.  The libertarian position is quite straight forward.  The government has a very minimal role to play in the affairs of individuals and markets.  Sandel presents five arguments against liberalism, but suggests that only the last one is difficult for the libertrian to defend.  This is the idea of luck and self-ownership.  To what extent is a person's sucess based on luck.  If it is based on luck, then an argument can be made that indiviudals are not necessarily deserving to everything they have earned.  The libertarian response relies on the notion of self-ownership.  Sandel then asks us how far we want to carry the notion of self-ownershipby considering cases ranging from selling kidneys to voluntary cannibalism.  So I would be interested to hear what you think about the role of luck in our successes.  Does self ownership mean we can have participate in activities such as selling our kidney or voluntary cannibalism?

Justice: Chapter 2

Sandel spends this chapter critiquing utilitarianism.  This is no surprise since he informs us in chapter one that theories of justice are grounded in ethical theories. Recall that utilitarianism is an ethical theory that states the right thing to do in a given situation is to maximize pleasure (or minimize pain) for the greatest number of people who are likely to be effected by the outcome.  As such utilitariamsim aplces the morality of act in the conequences that a given action brings about.  Sandel discusses two common objections to utilitarianism:  One: As an ethical theory it does not respect human dignity/individual rights.  Two: it presupposes a "common currency of values", but no such common currency exists.  Sandel uses a number of examples throughout the chapter to articualte these criticisms.  Some questions we might want to consdier discussing are 1) What do you make of utilitariaism as an ethical theory?  Should we always seek to maximize pelasure?  Are the criticims he levels against utilitarianism fair?  As always these are just suggestions.  Please feel free to comment on any aspect of the chapter or book to date.  

Tax Justice

This clip was featured on PBS' Religion and Ethics News Weekly last January.  It is short (10 mins.) and includes an interview with Michael Sandel (as well as others, offering opposing view points).  It is worth a watch (or a read, as the link includes the transcript).

Dilbert and Distributive Justice

I saw this Dilbert cartoon and thought I needed to post it here given its relevance to Sandel's chapter one discussion.  Enjoy.

Justice: What's the Right Thing to do - Chapter One

First off, if you purchased the book and are participating in our blog discussion, I appreciate it a great deal. I am anxious to hear your insights on justice. As a discalimer, I should say I am not an expert in this area of philosophy by any means (in fact I am not really an expert in any area of philosophy -sigh). It is only relatively recently that I have become interested in political philosophy, particularly the issue of justice. It is my hope that by participating in this with all of you it will help me to sort out and clarify my own thoughts on justice. I hope you find these blogging discussions interesting and worthwhile.

Now, to the book. . .

Chapter one really serves as an introductory chapter where Sandel lays out the project for the book. It is helpful because he introduces the various traditions that he will be critiquing. Not at all convinced that there is a best way to approach this I have simply summarized what I take to be the highlights of the chapter.

Sandel points out that justice pertains to the distribution of a societies goods, including "income and wealth, duties and rights, powers and opportunities, offices and honors" (p.19). The problem arises when we ask the question what is the best or most appropriate way to deliver these goods. Sandel identifies three traditions that have addressed this question, each one grounded in a particular ethical tradition. His exposition and critique of these three approaches to justice make up the remainder of the book. These three approaches are as follows:

1. maximizing welfare, which is grounded in utilitarianism

2. freedom approach:

a. the laissez-faire camp (libertarian economic policy: think free markets, completely unregulated by government)
b. the fairness camp (John Rawls' justice as fairness approach)

3. justice as an aspect of virtue ethics and what it means to lead the good life. (Plato and Aristotle)

It is this last theory that plays an important role for Sandel.  According to Sandel the "great questions of political philosophy" (p.9) ask whether or not a just society should play a role in promoting the virture of its citizens, or rather should laws be neutral with regrad to competing conceptions of virtue. The implication of the latter is that each citizen in society would be free to choose for themselves and pursue their own conception of the good life.

Indeed we are told that the answers to these questions seperate modern theories of justice from ancient theories. Ancient theories such as Aristotle's argue that in order to detemrine the correct distribution of a societies goods we must know which virtues are worthy of honoring. That is, we need to have a conception of the good life that is worth pursuing.

More modern theories of justice place an emphasis on an individuals freedom to choose their own conception of the good life: a just society will be one in which it is possible for individuals to live their own lives in their own way. In other words the government is neutral as to what constitutes the good life.

One thread that runs throughout this chapter is the tension between our sense of virtue and our desire to pursue our own good in our own way.  This may be the point of departure for our discussion:  Should government play a role in promoting a version of the good life?  That is, are there virtues or values that the government should seek to promote?  Or should the government remain agnostic about which virtues to promote?  I do not think I am giving anything away by revealing that Sandel will defend a view of justice grounded in the virtue tradition. I do not want to get too far ahead of this first chapter because his presentation and defense come later in the book. For now let me just add that he will argue that in thinking about justice we have to take into a consideration the virtues and conceptions of the good life that society feels are worth honoring. Given that we have not yet gotten to his arguments for this view, it might be a bit unfair to criticize it at this point, but for the sake of getting a discussion thread started we might want to consider the implications of such a theory keeping in mind that we can revise our positions one way or the other as he develops his argument in the latter part of the book.

OK. Now that I have prattled on, I am hoping that there is enough here to start our discussion. Please feel free to comment on anything written in the post, or in chapter one, or on justice , or on anything else that you deem to be relevant.  The questions posed in the prior paragraph are not meant to set a limit on the discussion but merely to suggest a starting point.

Getting Started

I found this cartoon online and could not resists posting it here. If you have read chapter 1 of Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?, then you can appreciate the reference to the trolley. If you have a broader background in philosophy, then there are plenty of other references here.  I'm a philosophy geek, what can I tell you. I hope you enjoy it.