hackertube.io

Justice: What's The Right Thing To Do? Episode 01 "THE MORAL SIDE OF MURDER"

Harvard University · lecture · Watch on YouTube

Philosophy & ethicsUniversity lectures & courses

What it is

The first episode of Michael Sandel's Harvard course on moral reasoning, opening with the trolley problem and the choice between killing one to save five. Sandel draws out student arguments and introduces utilitarian and other approaches to justice.

Why Hacker News recommends it

One of the most frequently recommended online lecture series on HN, praised for giving people vocabulary to examine ethical positions and for Sandel's skilled teaching.

  • 11 people recommended it
  • 12 different months
  • 6 strong recommendations
  • first 2013, last 2025

What HN commenters said

  1. “I found these lectures on the topic absolutely amazing to watch”

    Lecture series on moral philosophy found absolutely amazing

    soheil, 2013-06 · Strong recommendation · in “Oculus Rift co-founder killed by gang trying to escape police”

  2. “Two lecture series I always recommend, and feel like everyone should watch”

    Harvard justice course everyone should watch

    clusterfoo, 2015-03 · Strong recommendation · in “What Would You Recommend to a Bright 14 Year Old?”

  3. “I find it the most interesting. It's Harvard's philosophy course”

    Most interesting online course, Harvard's philosophy course

    kevindeasis, 2015-11 · Strong recommendation · in “Ask HN: What's your favorite online course?”

  4. “This Harvard session on Justice (The Moral Side of Murder) is edifying and surprisingly fun to watch”

    Edifying and fun session on the trolley problem and moral reasoning

    nopinsight, 2017-07 · Strong recommendation · in “Thoughts on OpenAI, reinforcement learning, and killer robots”

  5. “great course on moral reasoning, covers different theories of justice based on ideas from Aristotle, Kant, John Stuart Mill, John Rawls and many more”

    Well presented course on moral reasoning and theories of justice

    ljiljana, 2018-04 · Strong recommendation · in “Ask HN: What are the best MOOCs you've taken?”

  6. “it did give me a vocabulary to better articulate myself”

    Gives vocabulary to articulate and examine ethical stances

    mettamage, 2020-04 · Strong recommendation · in “Ask HN: Best practices for ethical web scraping?”

  7. “Sandel's complete course "Justice" is on Youtube.”

    Sandel's complete Justice course addresses false-choice moral dilemmas

    lvs, 2016-10 · Recommendation · in “Moral Machine”

  8. “The lecturer got explanations that I thought at the time were laughable, but somehow in his response he rephrased them to be reasonable”

    Lecturer rephrases student answers charitably to deepen the conversation

    ubershmekel, 2019-06 · Recommendation · in “People with Greater Intellectual Humility Have Superior General Knowledge”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: trolley problem, ethics, michael sandel, justice, utilitarianism, harvard

Also recommended by the same people