Ethics Discussion: Justice: What's The Right Thing To Do? Episode 02

Ethics Discussion: Justice: What's The Right Thing To Do? Episode 02: "PUTTING A PRICE TAG ON LIFE"
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Institution
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In the lecture Sandel highlights the Cost-benefit-analysis as being an overused metric to quantify aspects of human life as represented by the dollar value. Organizations and governments report performance using the utilitarian approach with emphasis on costs and benefits as well as pain and pleasure. However, this is simplistic and Sandel argues that using one measure to evaluate happiness among a population ignores is not a straightforward measure. The Ford Pinto case where the company failed to improve safety measures because of the extra cost implication illustrates that utilitarianism ignores individual rights when placing a tag on life.
Sandel further looks into utilitarianism and the possibility of getting the greatest good while protecting individual rights as advocated by John Stuart Mill. The higher pleasures are distinguished from the lower pleasures since people desire higher pleasure. To test this hypothesis, Sandel identifies video clips with different content to determine what the students deem most pleasurable among the three clips. Even as individuals may choose lower pleasures,...