Questing for Atlantis

This is an excellent video from a webseries called Justice. As described on its website:

Justice is one of the most popular courses in Harvard’s history. Now it’s your turn to take the same journey in moral reflection that has captivated more than 14,000 students, as Harvard opens its classroom to the world.

In this twelve part series, Sandel challenges us with difficult moral dilemmas and asks our opinion about the right thing to do. He then asks us to examine our answers in the light of new scenarios. The results are often surprising, revealing that important moral questions are never black and white.This course also addresses the hot topics of our day—affirmative action, same-sex marriage, patriotism and rights—and Sandel shows us that we can revisit familiar controversies with a fresh perspective.

I haven’t watched the others (in fact I’m still finishing up the one below, but I’ve watched enough to know I want to post it), but this one is a fairly good discussion of the philosophy of libertarianism. I have to agree with Julian Sanchez, it’s a good portrayal, but an awful lot is the professor taking down libertarian undergrads who don’t have the philosophical chops he does (in particular I really wished the libertarian defenders had simply acknowledged that yes, democracy is a bad thing).

That being said, it’s still worth watching and the world would be a far better place if this were a top watched program rather than Gossip Girl or whatever other idiotic show it is people are watching these days.

HT: Cato@Liberty