Justice: What's The Right Thing To Do? Episode 10: "THE GOOD CITIZEN"

PART ONE: THE GOOD CITIZEN
Aristotle believes the purpose of politics is to promote and cultivate the virtue of its citizens. The telos or goal of the state and political community is the good life. And those citizens who contribute most to the purpose of the community are the ones who should be most rewarded. But how do we know the purpose of a community or a practice? Aristotles theory of justice leads to a contemporary debate about golf. Sandel describes the case of Casey Martin, a disabled golfer, who sued the PGA after it declined his request to use a golf cart on the PGA Tour. The case leads to a debate about the purpose of golf and whether a players ability to walk the course is essential to the game.

PART TWO: FREEDOM VS. FIT

How does Aristotle address the issue of individual rights and the freedom to choose? If our place in society is determined by where we best fit, doesnt that eliminate personal choice? What if I am best suited to do one kind of work, but I want to do another? In this lecture, Sandel addresses one of the most glaring objections to Aristotles views on freedom—his defense of slavery as a fitting social role for certain human beings. Students discuss other objections to Aristotles theories and debate whether his philosophy overly restricts the freedom of individuals.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Harvard University
• Justice
• WGBH

[UTOG90]

i haven't seen Sandel be unable to address a student's concern or even simply misspeak throughout this entire series so far. i mean, this is all stuff that any professor should have in his back pocket, but you have to admit it's pretty impressive.

[meerzadayama]

Thanks for posting Sandel's justice lecture series; I am from Afghanistan and currently studying Political Science at San Diego State University, CA.

It has been a brilliant resource to find answers to my questions. For me It has been an inception to learn the techniques of arguing by imagining as If I was in that class and for sure I will find the appropriate language to express my ideas in a far better and stronger moral reasoning.

[addziu]

Isn't the problem that it shouldn't be court case at all. Let the PGA decide and let the people decide if they like it or not.

[AdamJazzVT]

@ahorrell and Rastafarians

[ahorrell]

@ahorrell or maybe some asian girls just have a thing for Harvard?

[noobler9]

@noobler9 the beowulf specifics are that beowulf and another man race across a channel in swimming, beowulf comes in later than the other man, but he is the hero of the story, the reason is because while the other man got there earlier, beowulf took a detour of killing off some nasty undersea monsters, showing qualities of prowess relevant to the required task of said hero, in this case, the honour aspect is that of struggle, that's what hard labour is about often, in endurance, a selling point

[noobler9]

@noobler9 thus, in this case, given the amount of pain and agony, not simple "oh I am LE tired" similar to "I broke a nail!" level discomfort, he is actually showing GREATER athleticism, in the sense that he is in not a simple cripple disadvantage but one of actual discomfort, pain and so on

it's THIS that is worthy of honour in athleticism, not just the record, which is technical skill, not spiritedness

[noobler9]

@noobler9 thus, the athleticism argument is not there, however if we go to the instance in which golf is the game in which you get a ball into a hole, then one must either recodify all of golf or admit that there is no particular single stance on it, but that there are aspects of the professional side that are important to consider, this is not giving the disabled absolute negation of their disabilities, this is simply acting to reduce it so that they have a reasonable chance to overcome it

[noobler9]

beowulf provides an example of that being useful, the 33:19

the athleticism itself may be judged in this light in fact, with the man with the physical disability must not use the cart at all times, but rather is given a leg up (hahaha) to roughly equalize the playing field but not to the point that he has an outstanding, oh these are too easy, advantage if his legs are in that much pain, then he must be willing to suffer more than others, but not tons more, to satisfy golf atheleticism

[alugnik]

Sandel in 33:05 refers to Special Olympics, but it needs to be said that Special Olympics are for those with mental disability; and for those with physical disability, like Casey Martin, there is Paralympics.

[kaaskop01]

I'm a random guy from Holland and even though I find a lot of this stuff hard too understand, this series is very interesting and amusing ^^

keep it up Harvard & Mr. Sandel! :D