Justice

Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?, a 2005 nonfiction book written by Harvard professor Michael J. Sandel, grew out of a popular course of the same name that Sandel teaches, in which he “exposes students to some of the great philosophical writings about justice, and also takes up contemporary legal and political controversies that raise philosophical questions” (293). In this book, Sandel does the same, comparing and contrasting several important approaches to justice and applying them to contemporary legal and political issues.

Other works by this author include The Tyranny of Merit, The Case Against Perfection, and What Money Can’t Buy.

The approaches to justice presented in the book fall into three categories: theories based on (1) “maximizing welfare,” (2) “respecting freedom,” and (3) “promoting virtue” (5-6, 18). Sandel ultimately reveals himself to be in the third category.

Sandel elaborates on the strengths and weaknesses of each of these theories in each chapter of the book. Chapters 2 and 3 discuss two of the primary approaches to justice covered in the book: utilitarianism and libertarianism. Chapter 4 then offers a chance to compare and contrast utilitarianism and libertarianism on the topic of the morality of markets.