Justice is one of the most popular courses in Harvard’s history. Nearly one thousand students pack Harvard’s historic Sanders Theatre to hear Professor Sandel talk about justice, equality, democracy, and citizenship. Now it’s your turn to take the same journey in moral reflection that has captivated more than 14,000 students, as Harvard opens its classroom to the world.
This course aims to help viewers become more critically minded thinkers about the moral decisions we all face in our everyday lives.
In this 12-part series, Sandel challenges us with difficult moral dilemmas and asks our opinion about the right thing to do.
He then asks us to examine our answers in the light of new scenarios. The result is often surprising, revealing that important moral questions are never black and white.
Sorting out these contradictions sharpens our own moral convictions and gives us the moral clarity to better understand the opposing views we confront in a democracy.
“(Sandel) is able to conduct remarkably effective dialogues in those large classes, like a conductor picking out a wind here, a brass there. He poses moral dilemmas so acute one could escape the agony only by thinking.”
- Kathleen Sullivan, former JUSTICE teaching fellow, now a professor at Stanford Law School
This course also addresses the hot topics of our day—same sex marriage, affirmative action, patriotism and rights—and Sandel shows us that we can revisit familiar controversies with a fresh perspective.
Professor Sandel believes the process of thinking our way through the difficult moral questions of our day—figuring out what we think, and why—helps make us better citizens.
“He is the greatest teacher I have ever seen. He is able, without visible effort, to make a lecture to students seem like an intimate, Socratic dialogue.”
- Jed Rubenfeld, former JUSTICE teaching fellow, now the Robert R. Slaughter Professor of Law, Yale Law School
