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Is murder ever justifiable?

'Justice with Michael Sandel' series of lectures

I apologise for having not written in a very long time. I have been very busy last week with bringing my Canadian relatives around town, and I have a very short weekend this week as I came back from camp on Saturday and have to book back in by tonight. I have not found much inspiration for writing these days, but I was inspired by a video that I was introduced to by a friend. This friend's Law module in Nanyang Business School, taken as part of his studies for an Accounting degree, introduces concepts in law to familiarise students with the relation between law and business. But this video that I watched, while not exactly directly relevant to business law or anything like that, is something good to ponder about as you ask yourself what morality is.

Justice with Michael Sandel is a video production put up by Harvard University. Showcasing Prof Michael Sandel's popular Justice course lectures in Harvard, this production is available online for all to see, to experience for oneself how Harvard teaches, as well as to allow oneself some exposure to some concepts in philosophy and law. I watched the first video, a series of two lectures that first introduces viewers (and students in the auditorium where the video was filmed) to the concept of justice and morality using examples, and then introducing a real-life court case that forces us to question if murder (in the court case, cannibalism) can ever be justifiable / moral.

Fundamentally, the question posed: "Is it permissible to harm a smaller number of innocent people to prevent greater harm to a larger number of people?"

It is a bit lengthy, 55 minutes in total for the first video, but it is worth viewing for some thought-provoking questions to ask yourself, as well as to learn more about concepts in philosophy such as consequentialist moral reasoning, utilitarianism and categorical moral reasoning.