I became a huge fan of Professor Sandel when it comes to
teaching and breaking down the philosophical views of the many great
philosopher of the world like Aristotle, Jeremy Bentham, Immanuel Kant, John
Stuart Mill, Nozick, and John Rawls. His ability to translate the ideas from
the great minds of the past up to the young minds of his students in Harvard
makes him very famous not only in the US but also in Europe and Asia. I was so lucky when I visited my favorite
book store in the metropolis (Asia Book) and I found the right book that I was
blogging the day before about the “Aristotelian Concepts and the Hunger ofModern Wisdom”. For the reason that
every chapter is a vital sub topic towards the whole course of Sandel’s main
subject “Justice” I would like to link each and every blog that I will write
about this book so that readers can follow the digested academic analysis that
I’m going to share to each and every reader of this blog. Likewise, I will
enhance my write-up with the free youtube videos of Professor Sandel sponsored
by the Faculty of Humanities in Harvard congruent to the blog article that I will
publish. Of all the series of his books
printed by the given known publishers, he started his book publication since
1982, Liberalism and the Limits of Justice; 2005, Public Philosophy; 2007, The
Case against Perfection; 2008, Justice what’s the right thing to do?; and 2012
What Money Can’t Buy. From all of his book
series I will discuss the 2008 edition Justice what’s the right thing to do? Because
in my opinion it is deem necessary to interact with the ideas that I previously
wrote in my last blog about “Aristotelian Concepts and the Hunger of ModernWisdom”. Again as what I stated in
my first paragraph comment that the translation of Sandel from the ideas of the
great minds from the past is congruent to our Justice system of today that
sometimes will complicate in terms of the my humanity cases that surround our
everyday life.
DOING THE RIGHT THING
The first section of the book discusses the fundamental
concepts of justice entitles the idea of what is the right thing to do as a
human existing in a modern community and society. Applying the fundamental concepts of
Aristotle to a vivid application of knowledge and a more complex society of
today Mr. Sandel open the book with an example case about the Hurricane Charlie
that heat the Gulf of Mexico and swept across Florida to the Atlantic Ocean.
Now the legal argument that Mr. Sandel would like to point out in his
philosophical debate is the dilemma about the term “Price-gouging”. When the Hurricane Charlie heat the Gulf of
Mexico and affected the communities of America specifically Florida, many of
the basic supplies and commodities for the family victims in the state of
Florida did not only suffer the hurricane calamity but also the price hike that
Mr. Sandel coined it as “Price-gouging”.
As such, the legal and philosophical argument and debate started as to
the morality of the price hike that the grocery store entrepreneurs are doing
in terms of the sudden “Price-gouging” caused by the hurricane calamity. On the contrary, in part of the families that
are the victims of the calamity and wanting to buy necessary goodies for their
love ones, it is but a horrible economic scenario that even without the
calamity they hardly support their family and now that the calamity is in their
midst the price sky rocket. In fairness to the grocery entrepreneurs, to
transport commodities from other states where they bought their wholesale goods
in times of the great hurricane naturally demands more logistical support and
requires more monetary resource to equalize the demand of the service being incurred
by the third party logistics. Thus, this
premise will touch the fundamental philosophical view of Aristotle about Virtue
and Morality. But take note that
Professor Sandel is keener in his hypothetical analysis at this moment
considering the many aspect of governance and political commerce in the area of
responsibility referring to the hurricane in Gulf of Mexico affecting Florida.
Relevant questions for hypothetical discussion that the reader may consider
are: Does a just society seek to promote the virtue of its citizens? Should law
be neutral toward competing conceptions of virtue, so that citizens can be free
to choose for themselves the best way to live?
WHAT WOUNDS DESERVE THE PURPLE HEART?
This sub-topic of the book portrays a practical hypothetical
case example of the American soldiers that are given awards for their heroic
act in their military operation outside American soil. The heroic military award called Purple Heart
Award has loopholes in terms of the deserving veteran soldier that will be awarded
with such kind of award. According to
the Pentagon the Purple Heart Award can only be awarded if the soldier in
action is in injury due to the combat operation in Afghanistan and Iraq. But how about those soldiers that are injured
mentally and who suffered mental dysfunction. Most of the time mental
dysfunction are hardest to give medical or mental treatment than physical
injury. It will take years for the
soldier to recover such traumatic psychological cases to cure. Thus, the dilemma of moral and justice that
affects the definition of virtue will again emerge into the debate argument as
to who will get the military award.
THE BAILOUT
The bailout economic case in the United States last 2008-9
proves the unjust political governance move United States towards its people
that Professor Sandel wrote in his book that “Americans are harder on failure
than on greed.” These private companies
who lavishly spends all their capital expenditure to housing market that
creates the housing market bubble and forced the government to intervene in
order to inject funds so that huge conglomerates will not close their businesses.
Thus, government and the US economy lost a huge chunk of monetary deposit in
their central bank that the congress and the senate of United States created
the Sarbanes Oxley Bill to allow government to monitor private conglomerates in
terms of their accounting, stocks, and bonds value. Monitoring the stocks and bonds of the
company will avoid stock manipulation just like what the Enron and AIG was
doing to their stocks at that year. In
this business case that most of the teachers are always siting as a case
example Professor Sandel on the contrary used the bailout case to analyze the
Morals and Virtue of the American government and its people. President Obama further commented to the case
of AIG that “A.I.G. finds itself in financial distress due to recklessness and
greed.” Indeed, Professor Sandel cited
the philosophical views of Aristotle in terms of justice related to moral and
virtue that sometimes how simple is the definition of justice; yet, it is still
vital in the American and the international political and commercial
governance.
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