Recently read:
Justice – What’s the right thing to do? (Michael J. Sandel)
My grade (1 to 5): 5 – thorough, provocative, forces you to think hard about your beliefs/morals and whether you (should) like them or not
Key Ideas:
- We have a civic obligation to learn how to think about what we consider right and wrong and why; this will help us make better, sound decisions on both small and big issues in our private lives but more importantly, on public affairs that affect society as a whole
- We cannot properly participate in debates on whether this policy is “just” or not, unless we understand its moral premises; those, in return, have to be first studied by reading and contemplating the thoughts of great political philosophers from Aristotle all the way to John Rawls; we have to understand (1) what they actually said, (2) why they said it, (3) in what era they lived that influenced their thoughts, (4) determine in what way their philosophy can be applied to judge a decision at hand, such as abortion, gay marriage, military draft, artificial insemination or the essential nature of golf, and (5) know on what grounds we support or reject these ideas in a way that aligns with our moral values
