At a time when American voters and their leaders are highly polarized over issues that are fundamentally about justice and morality, it is helpful to understand the philosophical and psychological roots of differences in fundamental values. This course will draw on the writings and lectures of two of the foremost academics who have studied these topics. Michael Sandel teaches an immensely popular course at Harvard on the concept of justice and its philosophical roots. We will watch and discuss videos of some of his lectures. Jonathan Haidt is an authority on the psychology of morality, and his theory and research are based on evolutionary considerations and studies of how people across cultures think about moral issues. We will read and discuss chapters from his book, The Righteous Mind. We will wrestle with the challenge of reconciling philosophical perspectives that are based on reason with psychological perspectives based on research on the ways humans think and feel about issues related to morality.

Among the issues to be considered in this course are: individual rights; justification of torture, free-market philosophy, selling of kidneys, assisted suicide, conscription vs. a volunteer army, telling the truth, affirmative action, border controls, and abortion.

We will watch several videos of lectures by Michael Sandel, the author of one of the required books. There will be much class discussion. There will also be lecture-presentations on Jonathan Haidt’s psychology of morality, politics, and religion.  Plan on about 60 pages of reading to prepare for each class session.