DAVID CUTLER · Spring 2023 ARCHIVE
Public reading edition · October 10, 2026. Read the daily classwork and homework here; no school login is required. These dates and directions belong to the archived course. Classwork and homework from a previous semester.
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January 19, 2023
Course introduction: What makes a government just?
Complete the chapter, “Doing the Right Thing,” from Michael J. Sandel’s Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? for Tuesday. Write a 2-3 paragraph response to the following prompt: What wounds deserve the Purple Heart?
January 20, 2023
Reading and preparation day.
No additional homework.
January 23, 2023
Is America’s government “the best”? Clip: The Newsroom. Discuss. Break out into groups to discuss “what would your government look like? What laws would there be? Why?”
Complete the chapter, “The Greatest Happiness Principle/Utilitarianism,” from Michael J. Sandel’s Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? for Friday. Write a 2-3 paragraph response to the following prompt: Can the utility principle support the idea that certain individual rights should be upheld even if doing so makes the majority very unhappy? If not, which should give way—respect for individual rights, or the utility principle itself?
January 24, 2023
Discuss Sandel reading. Share responses.
No additional homework.
January 26, 2023
Introduce "We the People" and register for online resources.
No additional homework.
January 27, 2023
Discuss Sandel reading. Share responses.
Complete the chapter, “Do We Own Ourselves: Libertarianism,” from Michael J. Sandel’s Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? for Monday Write a 2-3 paragraph response to the following prompt: If you accept the idea that we own ourselves, must you also accept the conclusion that all paternalist and redistributive laws are unjust? If, on the other hand, you believe that government should tax the rich to help the poor, how do you answer the libertarian argument that such laws are a form of coerced charity that makes every person the property (perhaps even the slave) of the majority?
January 30, 2023
Discuss Sandel reading. Share responses.
Complete the chapter, “Markets and Morals," from Michael J. Sandel’s Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? for Thursday. Write a 2-3 paragraph response to the following prompt: What do you think about the morality of prostitution? Is it morally wrong to sell (or rent) the use of one’s sexual organs? Is it morally wrong to buy sex? Should it be legal to buy or sell sex?
January 31, 2023
Breaking down this week in politics and the news.
No additional homework specified.
February 2, 2023
Discuss Sandel reading. Share responses.
No additional homework.
February 3, 2023
Breaking down Thomas Hobbes: The Leviathan (1651).
Complete the chapter, “The Case for Equality/John Rawls,” from Michael J. Sandel’s Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? for Monday. Write a 2-3 paragraph response to the following prompt: One way to think about justice is to imagine a social contract in which people come together to choose the basic principles that will govern their society. Would the principles chosen in this way be fair? What does Rawls think? Do you agree? Why?
February 6, 2023
Discuss Sandel reading. Share responses.
For Thursday, please read Chapter 2 in We the People, "The Founding and the Constitution."