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S01E08 - "The Good Life"
Aired on Mar 15, 2011, 8:30 PM
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Episodes (1 Season · 8 Episodes)
The Moral Side of Murder
Professor 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.
Jan 25, 2011
30 min
The Case for Cannibalism
Michael 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.
Feb 1, 2011
30 min
How to Measure Pleasure
Michael 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.
Feb 8, 2011
30 min
A Lesson in Lying
Harvard 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.
Feb 15, 2011
30 min
What's a Fair Start?
Michael 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.
Feb 22, 2011
30 min
The Good Citizen
Michael 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.
Mar 1, 2011
30 min
Freedom vs Fit
Michael 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.
Mar 8, 2011
30 min
The Good Life
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.
Mar 15, 2011
30 min
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