Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do?

From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com Reviewed by Dennis Drabelle drabelled@washpost.com The philosophy prof as TV star: Not many thinkers can pull that off, but Michael Sandel has taken his courses on political philosophy from the halls of Harvard to the nation's small screens, courtesy of PBS. Sandel's appeal lies partly in the striking hypotheticals he throws out, such as whether it's okay to kill one person directly (on an overloaded lifeboat, for example) to save three others; and partly in the way he makes good use of even rambling responses by the students he calls upon. This book is absolutely indispensable for anyone who wants to be a good citizen. It shows how to balance competing values, a talent our nation desperately needs nowadays. -Walter Isaacson, author of Benjamin Franklin: An American Life