For more than two decades, Harvard professor Michael Sandel has
taught one of the most popular courses at the University. The
class, Justice, has been attended by 15,000 students and currently
enrolls upwards of 1,000 each year. Recently, portions of the class
were presented by public television station WGBH and Harvard
University in a 12-episode series, which is also available on
Sandel’s website, www.justiceharvard.org.

JUSTICE, now available in paperback, was written by Sandel as an
accompanying volume to the class. It is not a textbook, but rather
a limited discussion and presentation of many of the provocative
hypotheticals that form the stepping-off point for class
discussion. Should innocent civilians be killed to save a military
mission? Should entertainers make millions while school teachers
struggle to earn a decent salary? Should surrogates be allowed to
sell the babies who grow in their wombs? Questions abound, and the
purported answers only raise more questions. While such questions
are as old as the great philosophers of ancient times, Sandel has
the remarkable ability to weave 21st-century thinking into the
discussion. From Shakespeare to the Simpsons, from Woody Allen to
the Clinton impeachment trial, it is Sandel’s ability to
modernize the philosophical debates of the centuries that explain
the astonishing popularity of Justice as an educational
vehicle.

“Great cases like hard cases make bad law,” observed
Oliver Wendell Holmes. “For great cases are called great, not
by reason of their importance...but because of some accident of
immediate overwhelming interest which appeals to the feelings and
distorts the judgment.” But JUSTICE is far more than a book
about law. Sandel presents us with a problem, asks readers to
identify the principles that apply to solving that problem, and
then reminds us that it may be very difficult to always have those
principles line up as a correct solution to the problem. During the
American Civil War, wealthy citizens paid poor young men several
hundred dollars to take their place after having been drafted.
Today, most citizens would view that action with scorn. At the same
time, however, the modern volunteer army that allows many citizens
to avoid military service is considered to be a wonderful
institution. As a nation, if we were honest with ourselves,
military service would be viewed as an important civic obligation.
Ironically, such a stance might have serious ramifications for our
present foreign military efforts.

JUSTICE is a moral and intellectual page-turning debate that
reflects upon those issues talked about on a daily basis across the
land. Sandel shows readers that debates on issues ranging from
abortion to affirmative action and gay marriage can be conducted in
an adult and non-polemic manner that does not reduce every argument
to an ad hominem political attack. Indeed, the great value of
Sandel’s course, as well as accompanying texts, lies in what
it teaches us about morality and justice. More than anything else,
we learn that a full, frank and open debate can be conducted
without rancor or name-calling. Were such debates the rule rather
than the exception, our political discourse might be far more
productive.

Beyond the mere contents of the book or the Socratic dialogue of
the lectures, whatever road one takes to follow the moral
discussions of Sandel, there is a timely message for all of us to
end the bitter bickering that serves no purpose in the discussions
of important issues. Perhaps that is an unintended message of
JUSTICE. But whether intended or unintended, raising the level of
political discourse beyond that presently followed in our
sound-bite society cannot be a bad thing. Sandel, through his book
and his teaching, has made a major contribution to raising the
level of political debate for all of us.