Justice -What's the right thing to do

Some days ago, I started to watch an interesting Harvard lecture series on Law. In this lectures, Mr. Michael Sandel has come up with the fascinating way to teach philosophy which everyone of us can digest easily, on many interesting issues. Nearly one thousand students pack Harvard’s historic ‘Sanders Theatre’ to hear Michael Sandel’s talk about justice, equality, democracy, and citizenship.

What I found after watching this series that- most of the times our thinking is biased about the things which surrounds us and we make impression of right or wrong without analyzing the other side. But when question has no correct answer there is only one honest response –the grey area between right and wrong.

Let’s take some of the cases which I find interesting.

If you argue, torturing people is wrong, how about torturing a person who is a suspect of planting a bomb which could cause thousands of deaths?  Is torture defensible if it yields valuable information? Or person’s human rights is first priority?

If law has made on stealing things, “Is a parent justified in stealing a drug for a child who needs it to survive if he could not pay?” Should law be different for different situations? And if it is justified then wouldn't people give justifications for every bad act they have done?

If government has policy of redistribution of wealth (means transfer of wealth from rich to poor) by additional taxation from rich people then isn’t it is forced labour? Let’s take an example. Bill Gates is wealthiest person and government asking him to pay 33% tax of his total income to redistribute that money to poor, then government actually asking him to work more and more to attain money he would have attained in first place. Isn't it form of forced labour?  

Is lying morally correct if situation demands even it hurts your dignity?  In many cases, the law can't be neutral on hard moral questions. Engaging rather than avoiding the moral convictions of our fellow citizens may be the best way of seeking a ‘just’ society.

These and many other cases discussed by Mr. Michael Sandel in a very narrative way and it makes us to think. If these cases interests you then visit this site.- http://www.justiceharvard.org/ 

I will discuss some interesting cases in my next blog. Peace.

~Digvijay Sanjay Patil