Q&A: Mar 26

Monday’s Q&A episode dispenses with the group panel and features US philosopher and Harvard lecturer Michael Sandel, once named “most influential foreign figure of the year.”

Michael Sandel teaches political philosophy at Harvard University. He has been described as “the most relevant living philosopher,” a “rock-star moralist,”(Newsweek) and “currently the most popular professor in the world.”(Die Zeit)

His writings—on justice, ethics, democracy, and markets–have been translated into 27 languages. His legendary course “Justice” is the first Harvard course to be made freely available online and on television. It has been viewed by tens of millions of people around the world, including in China, where Michael was named the “most influential foreign figure of the year.” (China Newsweek)

Michael’s books relate the big questions of political philosophy to the most vexing issues of our time. They include What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets; Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do?; The Case against Perfection: Ethics in the Age of Genetic Engineering; and Democracy’s Discontent: America in Search of a Public Philosophy.

His BBC series “The Public Philosopher” explores the philosophical ideas lying behind the headlines with audiences around the world, including a discussion of violence against women, recorded in India, and a debate about democracy in Britain’s Parliament. In Brazil, he recently led a debate on corruption and the ethics of everyday life that reached an audience of 19 million on Globo TV. On NHK, Japan’s national television network, he led a discussion with students from China, Japan, and South Korea on history and moral responsibility.

Michael has been a pioneer in the use of new technology to promote global public discourse. In a new BBC series, “The Global Philosopher” Michael leads video-linked discussions with participants from over 30 countries on issues such as immigration and climate change.

Michael has been a visiting professor at the Sorbonne, delivered the Tanner Lectures on Human Values at Oxford, and given the Kellogg Lecture on Jurisprudence at the U.S. Library of Congress. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he received his doctorate from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.

Michael’s lecture tours have taken him across five continents and packed such venues as St. Paul’s Cathedral (London), the Sydney Opera House (Australia), and an outdoor stadium in Seoul (S. Korea), where 14,000 people came to hear him speak.

9:35pm Monday on ABC