WATCH: How Societies Should Organize — Balancing Freedom and Community

Take a look at the image above. Now most people would probably agree that whatever is the greatest good for the greatest number of people is the right action. But what if you came in for a routine medical operation and they carved you up and gave your organs to those in need?! It’s a problem called the Transplant Surgeon Objection and it demonstrates how tricky our beliefs can be when we’re pressed to defend them.

That’s to say that we’re continuing to roll out our amazing Floating University video series with a third feature that touches on topics everyone has an opinion about: freedom, fairness, community, and individual rights. Warning: You might not want to watch this at the dinner table (it gets political), but in the name of having great discussion over important issues, we hope you will!

In this illuminating one-hour talk, Yale philosophy professor Tamar Gendler examines some of our most foundational philosophical issues through three topical questions — and one that’s more far out (it’s the one about selling your vote).

Should we have universal healthcare?

Is an inheritance tax legitimate? 

Should the army be created by a draft or by volunteers?

Is it legitimate to sell your vote?

So whether you want to defend your personal political opinions more soundly or open your mind to new avenues of thought, we think you’ll find this discussion enlightening, challenging, and immensely satisfying. And all in under one hour!

Technology has been changing how knowledge is commodified and distributed for decades now, but education has been slow to adjust (much to its own and peril — and that of its students). So instead of taking out thousands of dollars in student loans, or to get a jump start on the education you wish you’d had, begin watching these amazing one-hour lectures by some of America’s most talented thinkers, investors, artists, and leaders.