Source: Justice: A Journey in Moral Reasoning
In this second set of video lectures from Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?, Harvard University professor Michael Sandel explores the Utilitarian philosophies of Jeremy Bentham and J.S. Mill. In the first lecture, he presents students with contemporary examples in which corporations assigned a dollar value to human lives and used the theory of cost-benefit analysis to make business decisions; a discussion about objections to Utilitarianism follows. In the second lecture, he tests the theory that human experience is quantifiable and that some kinds of pleasures are more desirable than others. He shows the class three video clips (from The Simpsons, the reality show Fear Factor, and Shakespeare's Hamlet) and has the students debate which of the three experiences qualifies as the "highest" pleasure.
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