Moral and Ethical Dilemmas in Michael Sandel's Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?

Book Review
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Institution
Introduction
Michael J. Sandel is one of the renowned and influential people from the Harvard University. He is experienced in the matters of political philosophy and as a result close to one thousand students normally throngs the theatre on campus to listen to him speaking about and relating the current issues to the political philosophy. In the year 2009, he wrote a book based on political philosophy titled as Justice: What’s the Right Thing to do? The book was written so as to shed more light on Sandel’s popular topic of Justice, a course that he has taught at Harvard University for over 30 years now. Mr, Sandel has insightfully explored the topic of justice and has been able to relate to some of the real-life experiences that most of the readers are well conversant with, and this enables the readers to easily grasp the idea that he is exploring. One thing that is quite interesting to be noted about Sandel is that he does not easily flow with the current or he does always go with the common opinion in the society. Being a person who tends to unique and a liberal thinker as well as a self-styled communitarian; he is always at loggerheads with one of the leading new or current public life. He is of the opinion that both of religious and moral notions are private issues and therefore ought to be kept away from the political debate in the public (Sandel, 2010).
This essay examines the review of the book Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? This essay will also provide the background and summary of the book.
The Summary of the Book, Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do by Michael J. Sandel
The book begins with the exploration of many different moral and ethical dilemmas that are being faced in the society. In the first chapter of the book, Sandel has insightfully highlighted the events that took place in the wake of Hurricane Charley that took place in 2004. The Hurricane Charley that started from the Mexico Gulf, and swept through the State of Florida, up to the Atlantic Ocean. Most of the business owners took the advantage of the crisis to exploit their customers so as to maximize profits. For instance, the gauging price for gasoline and other necessary products saw their prices more than doubled something that angered both the buyers and observers. People were angered by the fact that these sellers took the advantage of the crisis to exploit them for their own personal gains. For example, a gas station located in Orlando, before the crisis, they were selling bags of ice for $2, but after the ordeal they were now going for ten dollars. In this scenario, the author has pointed out the fact that the arguments for and against the law on price gouging are normally about the three ideas which include; virtue, welfare, and freedom. The author has also gone ahead to discuss who should be awarded the Purple Heart. For instance, the author has argued that it is not prudent top award the soldiers who are either injured or killed during the war should be awarded the Purple Heart. For this problem to be solved, it is first important to understand the virtue that one would want to the owner. The last case study the author has discussed in the book concerns the recently witn...