Michael Sandel - Justice - What is the right thing to do

http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_sandel_what_s_the_right_thing_to_do

Great talk (only watched 15 min or so) about justice and the moral / right thing to do.

Consequential morality: locates morality in the consequences of an act
Categorical morality: locates morality in certain duties and rights

"Philosophy teaches us, and unsettles us, by confronting us with what we already know."

"Philosophy estranges us from the familiar, not by supplying new information, but by inviting and provoking a new way of seeing. ... Once familiar things estrange, nothing will ever be the same again."


Part 2
John Stuart Mill, utilitarianism, says there is a distinction between higher and lower pleasures (important when attaching a value to them) : "Of two pleasures, if there be one to which all or almost all who have experience of both give a decided preference, irrespective of any feeling of moral obligation to prefer it, then that is the more desirable pleasure."

Another one by Mill: "It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied. Better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the fool or the pig are of a different opinion, it is because they only know their side of the question."

TED - Best of the web - Richard Feynman

"I have a lot of fun imagining things. We can understand so much by thinking about things, and it should be fun. There are no questions at the end, no teacher asking questions. Otherwise it becomes a horrible subject."