BASEHOR, Kan. - For a thought-provoking, multi-part series on justice, morality, and political and personal choice, take a look at a video course taught at Harvard University, which is free and open to the public.
Justice is one of the most popular courses in Harvard's history. Now it's your turn to take the same journey in moral reflection that has captivated more than 14,000 students, as Harvard opens its classroom to the world.In this twelve part series, Professor Michael Sandel challenges us with difficult moral dilemmas and asks our opinion about the right thing to do. He then asks us to examine our answers in the light of new scenarios. The results are often surprising, revealing that important moral questions are never black and white.
This course also addresses the hot topics of our day--affirmative action, same-sex marriage, patriotism and rights--and Sandel shows us that we can revisit familiar controversies with a fresh perspective.
As Sandel says,
"...there is a warning: to read the books in the course, as an exercise in self knowledge, carries certain risks that are both personal and political. These risks spring from the fact that philosophy teaches us and unsettles us by confronting us with what we already know. There is an irony: the course teaches what you already know. It works by taking what we know from familiar, unquestioned settings and making it strange. Philosophy estranges us from the familiar, not by supplying new information, but by inviting and provoking a new way of seeing. And here's the risk: once the familiar turns strange, it's never quite the same again. Self knowledge is like lost innocence. However unsettling you find it, it can never be unthought or unknown. What makes this enterprise difficult, but also riveting, is that moral and political philosophy is a story and you don't know where the story will lead, but what you do know is that the story is about you. Those are the personal risks.
For the political risks, listen to the rest of his introduction.
If you see life as a matter of right/wrong, black/white, yes/no, either/or, then don't watch, because this series is guaranteed to challenge what you have come to accept as true, right, and moral.
Post your own comment here