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Harvard’s most popular professor to speak on justice and the moral limits of markets.

 “Michael Sandel is a philosopher with the global profile of a rock star. He doesn’t just lecture in halls, but in stadiums.”- Tim Franks, BBC News 

Prof. Michael Sandel, Harvard’s most popular professor, is set to speak at the Research Centre for Human Values (the Centre) at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) next week. The Centre will host the best-selling political philosopher for his first visit to Hong Kong in over a decade, where he will deliver a lecture entitled ‘What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets’, based on his New York Times bestselling book of the same name. 

The lecture will be held at 19:00 on Friday 11 March 2016, at the Sir Run Run Shaw Hall at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. As a result of the overwhelming response, seated tickets were fully subscribed quickly. However tickets for the simultaneous live-stream taking place at the Lady Shaw Building at CUHK will be available to the public, for free, from 10:00 HKT tomorrow (Friday 4 March, 2016) at: http://bit.ly/SandelCUHKlivestream. 

Prof. Simon Haines, Director of the Centre and Chairman of the Department of English at CUHK says: “Prof. Sandel is one of the greatest living political philosophers. Having him visit Hong Kong at this time to speak at the Research Centre for Human Values on this topic will provide us all with pause for thought at this critical moment in the history of our busy metropolis. 

Prof. Sandel’s legendary lectures have inspired thousands of students at Harvard, in Asia and elsewhere across the world, as well as many more online. We are thrilled to be able to host him live at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and I’m sure at this point in our history the city’s students and wider public will relish this opportunity to learn from one of the most celebrated thinkers of our generation.”

In his book What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets, Prof. Sandel takes up some of the biggest ethical questions of our time: isn’t there something wrong with a world in which everything is for sale? If so, how can we prevent market values from reaching into spheres of life where they don’t belong? What are the moral limits of markets? 

Prof. Sandel will challenge the audience with ethical dilemmas grounded in economics. For example: should we pay children to read books or to get good grades? Should we put a price on human life to decide how much pollution to allow? Is it ethical to pay people to test risky new drugs or to donate their organs? 

One of Foreign Policy‘s Top 100 Global Thinkers, Prof. Sandel has been described as “the most relevant living philosopher,” “a rock-star moralist” (Newsweek), and “the most famous teacher of philosophy in the world” (New Republic). 

Prof. Sandel’s legendary course ‘Justice’ has enrolled over 15,000 students and was the first Harvard course to be made freely available online and on public television. It has been viewed by millions of people around the world, including in China, where China Newsweek named him in 2011 the “most influential foreign figure of the year.” 

His first book, Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? has sold over 2 million copies worldwide and has been translated into 27 different languages.

About Michael Sandel 

Michael Sandel teaches political philosophy at Harvard University. His book Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? relates the big questions of political philosophy to the most vexing issues of our time. An international bestseller, it is one of the most widely read books of political philosophy in recent decades. Sandel’s latest book, What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets, challenges us to rethink the role that money and markets should play in our lives. Reviewers have called it a “brilliant, indispensable book on the relationship between morality and economics,” and “an eloquent argument for morality in public life.” 

Described by the Guardian as “the man who is currently the most effective communicator of ideas in English,” Sandel’s books and online lectures have brought him “the kind of popularity usually reserved for Hollywood movie stars and NBA players.”(China Daily) His recent lecture tours have taken him across five continents, packing such venues as St. Paul’s Cathedral (London), the Sydney Opera House (Australia), and an outdoor amphitheater in Seoul, Korea, where 14,000 people came to hear him speak. 

About The Research Centre for Human Values, CUHK

Founded in 2009 with a generous donation from the Philomathia Foundation, the Research Centre for Human Values at The Chinese University of Hong Kong aims to promote discussion and research concerning questions involving human values across the University, Hong Kong and internationally. 

The mission of the Research Centre for Human Values is to promote reflectiveness about human values through research, public discussion and teaching focused on values and value-conflicts as they present themselves in contemporary lives and across our contemporary academic disciplines.
http://www.eng.cuhk.edu.hk/rchv/