lecture2009–present

Justice: What's The Right Thing To Do?

Disciplines:

Summary

Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do? is Michael Sandel's Harvard lecture course on political philosophy, broadcast on PBS and YouTube with over 30 million views worldwide.

Core Contribution

The lecture series introduced rigorous political philosophy to mass audiences by working through competing theories of justice — utilitarianism, libertarianism, Kantian ethics, Rawlsian liberalism, and communitarianism — via real moral dilemmas, making it the most widely viewed philosophy course in history.

Key Spikes & Highlights

30 million views (the most widely viewed philosophy course in history — broadcast to Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and global audiences)
Real dilemma method (opens with the trolley problem and moves through cases from the Mignonette to Casey Martin)
Cambridge audience of 1,000 (filmed in Harvard's Sanders Theatre with a live audience of over 1,000 students)
Companion book (the course's 2009 companion book became an international bestseller in over 40 languages)

Historical Influences

Michael Sandel

Intellectual Lineage

Socratic dialogue tradition American public education movement Analytic moral philosophy curriculum

Allied Works

Philosophy Bites The Moral Maze Liberalism and the Limits of Justice Democracy's Discontent

Contemporaries & Peers

Philosophy Bites The Moral Maze

Minds Influenced

No recorded minds influenced.

Intellectual Posterity

Public philosophy movement Sandel's Justice book Open courseware model

Discussing