Before you proceed, please watch the following highly compelling trailer. If you can watch the first few minutes without being interested, you need not continue reading.
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Michael Sandel has recently become a personal hero of mine, as I believe he is doing our country a huge favor right now. He is providing a service to our college students, and our nation as a whole, by making sure that our political conversations are undergirded with a proper understanding of the moral and political ideas that shaped our government in the first place. By drawing out the philosophies that lie at the roots of our ideologies, party alignments, and voting habits, Sandel helps us to understand the full implications and consequences of whatever stance we happen to take.
In my prideful opinion, this is precisely the kind of thing that we need more of right now. In watching these lectures, I've come to realize that a vast majority of the political conversations going on right now are somewhat akin to people arguing about what it means to be a Christian, without ever having read the Gospels. Or about what it means to be a Muslim, without ever having read the Koran. Or what constitutes good fantasy literature, without reading a word of Tolkien. Or what it's like to be a pro wrestler, without ever getting elbow dropped from the top rope. You get the idea. (I'm sure you got it without all the examples, but I was having too much fun listing them.)
And I have a hard time imagining anyone doing it better than Sandel does. It's evident that he is a master at what he does, judging by the fact that his students are awake and fully engaged at every lecture.
If you have any interest in politics, in moral or political philosophy, or even in seeing the minds of bright, well-educated young people at work, you don't want to miss these lectures. This is probably one of the coolest things happening on a University campus, and the kind folks at Harvard have made it accessible to us. I highly recommend taking advantage.
Harvard University's "Justice" with Michael Sandel
