Summary of Ch 7-8 in "Justice" by Michael J. Sandel

Justice by Michael J. Sandel (Jan 14, 2011)   Chapter 7. Arguing Affirmative Action   Episode Nine 1. PART ONE: ARGUING AFFIRMATIVE ACTION Sandel describes the 1996 court case of a white woman named Cheryl Hopwood who was denied admission to a Texas law school, even though she had higher grades and test scores than some of the minority applicants who were admitted. Hopwood took her case to court, arguing the school’s affirmative action program violated her rights. Students discuss the pros and cons of affirmative action. Should we try to correct for inequality in educational backgrounds by taking race into consideration? Should we compensate for historical injustices such as slavery and segregation? Is the argument in favor of promoting diversity a valid one? How does it size up against the argument that a student’s efforts and achievements should carry more weight than factors that are out of his or her control and therefore arbitrary? When a university’s stated mission is to increase diversity, is it a violation of rights to deny a white person admission?   2. PART TWO: WHAT’S THE PURPOSE? Sandel introduces Aristotle and his theory of justice. Aristotle disagrees with Rawls and Kant. He believes that justice is about giving people their due, what they deserve. When considering matters of distribution, Aristotle argues one must consider the goal, the end, the purpose of what is being distributed. The best flutes, for example, should go to the best flute players. And the highest political offices should go to those with the best judgment and the greatest civic virtue. For Aristotle, justice is a matter of fitting a person’s virtues with an appropriate role.   3. Aristotle, The Politics Many rights-oriented philosophers believe that distributive justice is not a matter of rewarding virtue or moral desert, and that the measure of a just society is not whether it produces virtuous citizens, but whether it provides a fair framework of rights within which individuals can pursue their own values. Aristotle (384-322 BC) rejects both of these beliefs. He believes that justice consists in giving people what they deserve, and that a just society is one that enables human beings to realize their highest nature and to live the good life. For Aristotle, political activity is not merely a way to pursue our interests, but an essential part of the good life.   4. Hopwood v. State (1996) Is it unjust to consider race as a factor in college and university admissions? That is what Cheryl Hopwood argued when she was denied admission to the University of Texas Law School even though her test scores and grades were higher than some of the minority candidates who were admitted. Hopwood, together with a number of other white candidates, sued the University of Texas Law School in the case of Hopwood v. State of Texas (1996).   5. The moral questions: Is it unjust to consider race and ethnicity as factors in hiring or university admission?(p.169) -correcting for the testing gap -compensating for past wrongs -promoting diversity ---racial and ethnic diversity in the classroom and the courtroom serves the law school's educational purposes. And unless the pursuit of those purposes somehow violates the rights of those who lose out, disappointed applicants can't legitimately claim that they've been treated unfairly.(p.177)   6. Can justice be detached from moral desert? (p.178) -The renunciation of moral desert as the basis of distributive justice is morally attractive but also disquieting. -Rawls: "no one deserves his greater natural capacity nor merits a more favourable starting place in society." -meritocratic societies: Its persistence is an obstacle to social solidarity; the more we regard our success as our own doing, the less responsibility we feel for those fall behind.(p.179)   7. Why not auction college admission? -legacy preferences & development admits -a student admitted to a school for the sake of a $10 million gift for the new campus library is meritorious (in favor of the philanthropist's child) -The students who lose out aren't the victims of prejudice; it's just their bad luck to lack parents willing and able to donate a new library. -the purpose of a college education is not commercial; so selling education as if it were merely a consumer good is a kind of corruption.     Chapter 8. Who Deserves What?--Aristotle   Episode Ten 1. PART ONE: THE GOOD CITIZEN Aristotle believes the purpose of politics is to promote and cultivate the virtue of its citizens. The telos or goal of the state and political community is the “good life”. And those citizens who contribute most to the purpose of the community are the ones who should be most rewarded. But how do we know the purpose of a community or a practice? Aristotle’s theory of justice leads to a contemporary debate about golf. Sandel describes the case of Casey Martin, a disabled golfer, who sued the PGA after it declined his request to use a golf cart on the PGA Tour. The case leads to a debate about the purpose of golf and whether a player’s ability to “walk the course” is essential to the game.   2. PART TWO: FREEDOM VS. FIT How does Aristotle address the issue of individual rights and the freedom to choose? If our place in society is determined by where we best fit, doesn’t that eliminate personal choice? What if I am best suited to do one kind of work, but I want to do another? In this lecture, Sandel addresses one of the most glaring objections to Aristotle’s views on freedom—his defense of slavery as a fitting social role for certain human beings. Students discuss other objections to Aristotle’s theories and debate whether his philosophy overly restricts the freedom of individuals.   3. PGA Tour, Inc. v. Martin (2000) Should a golfer with a congenital leg disease have the right to use a golf cart in professional golf tournaments? In the case of PGA Tour, Inc. v. Martin (2000), the justices of the US Supreme Court disagreed. Their disagreement turned in part on competing views about whether walking the course is essential to the game of golf. To what extent does the debate about using golf carts call into question the athletic nature of golf and the honor due to those who excel at it?   4. Callie Smartt was kicked off the cheerleader squad because she had cerebral palsy and moved about in a wheelchair. (p.184) -social practices such as cheerleading have not only an instrumental purpose (cheering on the team) but also an honorific, or exemplary, purpose (celebrating certain excellences and virtues) -These parents wanted cheerleading to honor the traditional cheerleader virtues their daughters possessed.   5. Aristotle's theory of justice (p.186) 1) Justice is teleological. 2) Justice is honorific.   6. What's the purpose of politics? (p.192) -distributive justice: (today) concerned with the distribution of income, wealth, and opportunities; (Aristotle) concerned with the distribution of offices and honors: Who should have the right to rule? How should political authority be distributed? -Aristotle: Any polis must devote itself to the end of encouraging goodness. Otherwise, a political association sinks into a mere alliance.(p.193) -The end and purpose of a police is the good life, and the institutions of social life are means to that end. -Those who contribute most to an association of this character are those who excel in civic virtue, those who are best at deliberating about the common good. -Since the end of politics is the good life, the highest offices and honors should go to people such as Pericles   7. Can you be a good person if you don't participate in politics? (p.195) Why can't we live perfectly good, virtuous lives without politics? -Only by living in a polis and participating in politics do we fully realize our nature as human being. -Language, a distinctly human capacity, is about declaring what is just and what is unjust, and distinguishing right from wrong. -The man who is isolated is no part of the polis, and must therefore be either a beast or a god.   8. Learning by doing -becoming virtuous is like learning to play the flute. No one learns how to play a musical instrument by reading a book or listening to a lecture.... So it is with moral virtue: "we become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts."