Opinion The thirst for justice

Sandel,58,will start by tossing out a question,like,“Is it fair that David Letterman makes 700 times more than a schoolteacher?” or “Are we morally responsible for righting the wrongs of our grandparents’ generation?” Students offer competing answers,challenge one another,debate with the philosophers — and learn the art of reasoned moral argument along the way.

Besides being educational,the classes make great theatre — so much so that Harvard and Boston public TV filmed them. The TV series,(at http://www.JusticeHarvard.org),has stirred interest in surprising new places. Last year,Japan’s NHK broadcast a translated version,which sparked a philosophy craze there and prompted the University of Tokyo to create a course based on Sandel’s. In China,translators subtitled the lectures in websites. Sandel’s book,Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do?,has sold over a million copies in East Asia. This is a book about moral philosophy,folks!

Here’s The Japan Times describing Sandel’s 2010 visit: “Few philosophers are compared to rock stars or TV celebrities,but that’s the kind of popularity Michael Sandel enjoys in Japan.” At a lecture in Tokyo,“long lines had formed outside almost an hour before the start of the evening event. Tickets,which were free and assigned by lottery in advance,were in such demand that one was reportedly offered for sale on the Web for $500.” Sandel began by asking: “Is ticket scalping fair or unfair?”

What is most intriguing is the reception Sandel (a close friend) got in China. He has just completed a book tour and lectures at Tsinghua and Fudan universities. This semester Tsinghua has started a course modelled on Sandel’s. His class visit was covered on the national news.

Sandel’s popularity in Asia reflects the intersection of three trends. One is the growth of online education,where students can gain access to the best professors from everywhere. Another is the craving for a more creative,discussion-based style of teaching to produce more creative,innovative students. And the last is the hunger of young people to engage in moral reasoning and debates,rather than having their education confined to the dry,technical aspects of economics,business or engineering.

At Tsinghua and Fudan,Sandel challenged students with cases about justice and markets: Is it fair to raise the price of snow shovels after a snowstorm? What about auctioning university admissions to the highest bidder? “Free-market sentiment ran surprisingly high,” Sandel said,“but some students argued that unfettered markets create inequality and social discord.”

Sandel’s way of teaching about justice “is both refreshing and relevant in the context of China,” Dean Qian Yingyi of Tsinghua’s School of Economics and Management,said. Refreshing because of the style and relevant because “the philosophic thinking among the Chinese is mostly instrumentalist and materialistic,” partly because of “the contemporary obsession on economic development in China”.

Tsinghua’s decision to offer a version of Sandel’s course,added Qian,“is part of a great experiment of undergraduate education reform currently underway at our school… This isn’t just one class; it’s the beginning of an era.”

Sandel is touching something deep in both Boston and Beijing. “Students are hungry for discussion of the big ethical questions we confront,” Sandel argues. “In recent years,seemingly technical economic questions have crowded out questions of justice and the common good. I think there is a growing sense that GDP and market values do not by themselves produce happiness,or a good society. My dream is to connect students across cultures and national boundaries — to think through these hard moral questions together,to see what we can learn from one another.” Thomas L. Friedman