What are our obligations to others as people in a free society? Should government tax the rich to help the poor? Is the free market fair? Is it sometimes wrong to tell the truth? Is killing sometimes morally required? Is it possible, or desirable, to legislate morality? Do individual rights and the common good conflict?
These questions are at the core of our public life today—and at the heart of Justice, in which Michael J. Sandel shows how a surer grasp of philosophy can help us to make sense of politics, morality, and our own convictions as well.
Sandel's legendary Justice course is one of the most popular and influential at Harvard. Up to a thousand students pack the campus theater to hear Sandel relate the big questions of political philosophy to the most vexing issues of the day. In the fall of 2009, PBS will air a series based on the course.
Justice offers listeners the same exhilarating journey that captivates Harvard students—the challenge of thinking our way through the hard moral challenges we confront as citizens. It is a searching, lyrical exploration of the meaning of justice, an audiobook that invites readers of all political persuasions to consider familiar controversies in fresh and illuminating ways. Affirmative action, same-sex marriage, physician-assisted suicide, abortion, national service, the moral limits of markets, patriotism and dissent—Sandel shows how even the most hotly contested issues can be illuminated by reasoned moral argument.
Justice is lively, thought-provoking, and wise—an essential new addition to the small shelf of books that speak convincingly to the big questions of our civic life.
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"This is a subjective, comparative, philosophical and thought provoking book by Michael J. Sandel who is the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government at Harvard University, where he has taught since 1980, and the author of many books. This book put forth the many sides of justice and the many ways to see justice as applied to everyone. This is a long read and I read very few pages that I did not find myself pausing for several minutes to hours musing and turning over in my mind what I had just read. I do like this book in that you stop at most anytime and put it away and pick it up later as it's subject matter is broken down by chapter so it was just right for me as I had no desire to stay with it till the finish. It's a book about what the decisions we make everyday, why we make them and the many reasons we make them. Maybe not for the close minded..but for us who are open to look at life in the full spectrum...it's a must read!"
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Danny (4 out of 5 stars)