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Explore fundamental questions of moral philosophy through this 55-minute lecture that challenges your ethical reasoning with provocative hypothetical scenarios. Begin with the classic trolley problem, where you must decide whether to kill one person to save five others, then examine how your moral intuitions shift as Professor Michael Sandel presents increasingly complex variations of this dilemma. Witness classroom debates as students defend conflicting moral choices, revealing the contradictory assumptions underlying our ethical reasoning and demonstrating that questions of right and wrong are rarely black and white. Delve into utilitarian philosophy through Jeremy Bentham's principles, illustrated by a famous 19th-century legal case involving a shipwrecked crew who resorted to cannibalism for survival after 19 days at sea. Analyze whether the captain's decision to kill the weakest crew member—the young cabin boy—so the others could survive represents a morally justifiable application of utilitarian doctrine that seeks "the greatest good for the greatest number."
