Michael Sandel, a 56-year-old political scientist who teaches one of Harvard’s most popular courses, “Justice,” shrinks that university’s cavernous Sanders Theatre down to a seminar room. An exaggeration, yes, but not by much. Sandel handles 1,000 students more adroitly than most teachers can a tenth, a fiftieth, that number.

What is new about Harvard’s venture, more than five years in the making, is that it is the first time that public broadcasters can remember a regular college course’s being presented on television.

Is it ethical to torture a suspect to get information? Is it all right to steal a drug that your child needs to survive? Should we tax the rich to help the poor? These are a few of the moral questions thousands of Harvard students have grappled with in professor Michael Sandel’s legendary class: Justice.

Michael J. Sandel es un filósofo político y profesor de la Universidad de Harvard.