Skip to content
Who's in the Video
Michael J. Sandel is the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government at Harvard University, where he has taught political philosophy since 1980. He is the author of[…]

Sandel makes his students dig deep.

Question: What do you do?

Michael Sandel: The way I would describe what I do is I teach political philosophy. And what that really amounts to is inviting students to reflect critically on their own moral and political convictions; to figure out what they believe and why; and to do that in the company of some of the great philosophers of the past. So I invite students to read some of the famous works of political philosophy, but with an eye to contemporary challenges and dilemmas. And above all, with an eye to sorting out . . . Students very, very much wanted to sort out their own moral and religious convictions … their own take on the world. That’s really what I do.

Recorded on: 6/12/07


Related