Summary of Chapters 1 and 2 of the Sandel Book

Summary of Chapters 1 and 2 of the Sandel Book

Sandel’s book explores the entire concept of justice and how different individuals perceive it differently. He artistically forces the reader to face the real-life situations on deciding between the wrong and right.

In Chapter one, the author presents the reader with three distinct case studies. The first case study covers on laws that govern price gouging. Particularly, he highlights the effect of Hurricane Charley to prices in Florida. Sandel expounds further that the price gouging law is composed of freedom, virtue and welfare. He exhaustively debates on the people that should be considered for the Purple Heart. As he states, settling this debate calls for an in-depth understanding of the virtues that the medal should honor (Sandel 3).

His final case study of chapter one regards the 2008 financial crisis bailouts. Sandel discusses the bonuses received by the top level management of various business entities during the crisis. While some individuals viewed the bonuses as necessary, many labeled them as unjust as they rewarded failures and not success. The three approaches to justice as outlined by Sandel include welfare maximization, individual rights and freedoms, and the virtue of good life. He also explains the concept of moral dilemma and its link to moral instincts.

In the second chapter, Sandel discussed utilitarianism as a concept that can be approached in two different ways. The first approach focuses on the maximization of pleasure and pain for an overall utility maximization. He cautions that in the first approach, individual rights may be ignored—for instance torture. He also based the first view on the measurement of moral goods o a unitary scale, which is almost impossible in reality. On the other hand, the second approach states that people should be accorded freedom to engage in activities they like as long as they do not harm others (Tomassetti).

Works Cited

Sandel, Michael J. Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do? New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010. Print. 1-54.

Tomassetti G. Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do. Giorgiotomasetti. 2016. Available at: http://giorgiotomassetti.blogspot.co.us/2010/12/justice-whats-right-thing-to-do.html. Accessed February 7, 2016.