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Michael Sandel Whats The Right Thing To Do 1

1) The document discusses a philosophy lecture that presents moral dilemmas involving choosing between saving more or fewer lives in different scenarios. 2) The professor twists common sense scenarios in a way that invites students to consider categorical morality based on duties and rights rather than just consequential morality focused on outcomes. 3) While hypothetical scenarios can seem removed from reality, the document argues that they are important for exploring one's true moral views and developing one's moral compass.

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189 views3 pages

Michael Sandel Whats The Right Thing To Do 1

1) The document discusses a philosophy lecture that presents moral dilemmas involving choosing between saving more or fewer lives in different scenarios. 2) The professor twists common sense scenarios in a way that invites students to consider categorical morality based on duties and rights rather than just consequential morality focused on outcomes. 3) While hypothetical scenarios can seem removed from reality, the document argues that they are important for exploring one's true moral views and developing one's moral compass.

Uploaded by

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© © All Rights Reserved
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Tyson Tran

IB Lang

Moosman

19th October, 2020

Michael Sandel, "What's the Right Thing to Do? The Moral Side of Murder"

- Trolley car brakes don’t work, and 5 people are in the way, but you can take a side track

and hit 1 worker instead.

- You’re an onlooker, but you can push a man down and stop the trolley car. Would you do

it?

- What dictates the choice of 1 over 5?

- The reason people would rather kill the one in the first situation rather than the second is

because you have a choice of being involved or not

- Doctor in the emergency room. 5 patients in desperate need of organs. One healthy

person minding their own business. Would you take his organs?

- First moral principle depicted - Depends on the consequences that may result from action.

At the end of the day, the majority should leave. Consequentialist moral reasoning -

locates moral consequences of an act.

- Reasons that have to do with the quality of the act itself, seems categorically wrong even

if 5 people can still be saved.

- Categorical - locates morality in certain duties and rights, regardless of the consequences.
- Reading philosophical books carries personal and political risk, which springs from the

fact that philosophy teaches people what they already know, taking unquestionable things

and twisting them strangely to invite a new way of thinking.

- Once something familiar terms strange, it will never be the same again

- Personal risk - story is about you

- Political risk - political philosophy can at times make you a worse citizen, or make you a

worse citizen before you become a better one.

- Philosophy may take us away from reality, but nonetheless important because

hypothetical ideas can show a true side to one’s morality

- Evasion of skepticism and philosophy is not a good solution

- Questions may be avoided but they keep being applied to situations.

The professor in this video gives a scenario out to his students which are simple and what

one would consider “common sense” and then twists them in a strange way that allows for

students to think about the morality of the given situation. Even though the decision will lead to

the same consequences, the answers dramatically change because the students start to think more

about categorical morality (the location of morality in duty and rights regardless of the outcome)

when presented with a different circumstance rather than concentrating on the consequential

morality. Often, society shuns philosophy altogether because humans tend to see these

hypothetical situations as a takeaway from reality, where in truth, it is important to the

development of one’s moral compass.


Personally, I tend to look at consequential morality more than categorical, but it can

change with any given situation. To think about what dictates something as right or wrong would

make for a very interesting discussion, and skeptics are what will help us grow as humans.

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