Is there anything wrong with putting a price on health, education, citizenship, and the environment? Where do markets serve the public good, and where do they not belong?

Join us for a lively discussion with Professor Michael J. Sandel about money, markets, and the good things in life.

About the speaker

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 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 Sandel was recently named the “most influential foreign figure of the year.” (China Newsweek)

Sandel’s books, including What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets and Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do?, relate the big questions of political philosophy to most vexing issues of our time.

Sandel has been a visiting professor at the Sorbonne and delivered the Tanner Lectures on Human Values at Oxford, and the Reith Lectures on the BBC. His BBC Radio 4 series “The Public Philosopher” explores the philosophical ideas lying behind the headlines; in 2015 he led a debate about democracy in the Palace of Westminster with members of Parliament and the public.

Described by the Guardian as “the man who is currently the most effective communicator of ideas in English,” Sandel’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.

A graduate of Brandeis University, Sandel received his DPhil from Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar (Balliol 1975).