The Public Philosopher

Series

Episode

Title

First
Broadcast

Comments

Will AI make thinking obsolete?

20190826

Would you choose an algorithm rather than a human to mark your exam papers? Would you welcome a translation app that replaced foreign language learning? Would you trust a marriage prediction app to choose your life partner? Professor Michael Sandel of Harvard University - Radio 4's 'Public Philosopher' - puts these and other questions to an audience of students at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He generates a debate on the relationship between artificial intelligence and human decision-making, asking how far faith in technology depends on a mistrust of human subjectivity.

Producer: Sheila Cook

Professor Michael Sandel debates AI and decision-making at the London School of Economics.

Political philosopher Michael Sandel examines the thinking behind a current controversy.

Is rape worse than other violent crime?

20130326

Is rape a worse crime than other forms of violent assault? Should verbal sexual harassment be banned? These are two questions put by Harvard's Michael Sandel - BBC Radio 4's 'Public Philosopher' - who takes the programme to an audience at the Jaipur Literature Festival. The discussion follows the brutal rape and murder of a young woman in Delhi at the end of last year, a crime that provoked a national outcry in India.

Prof Michael Sandel is in India to discuss the philosophy of violence.

Political philosopher Michael Sandel examines the thinking behind a current controversy.

Why Democracy?

20150314

Harvard professor Michael Sandel is Radio 4's 'Public Philosopher', guiding audiences through complex moral philosophical dilemmas. For the BBC's Democracy Day, Professor Sandel recorded this special edition of The Public Philosopher inside the Palace of Westminster, challenging his audience of MPs, Peers and the public to think deeply about the true nature of democracy.

Producer: Ian Muir-Cochrane
Editor: Richard Knight.

Professor Michael Sandel explores democracy with a group of MPs, peers and the public.

Political philosopher Michael Sandel examines the thinking behind a current controversy.

Would life be better if robots did all the work?

20170307

Harvard philosopher Michael Sandel asks if life would be better if robots did all the work. Professor Sandel skilfully and entertainingly uses live audiences to help address important ethical and philosophical questions. He has travelled across the world and brought together global audiences for his method of Socratic dialogue.

Michael gathers an audience in a secondary school in Dagenham, East London, to address one of the most pressing issues of our times - the future of work in a world where automation threatens to replace more and more workers with robots. A much-cited Oxford University report predicts that 35% of jobs in the UK are at risk.

There is nowhere better to examine this issue than Dagenham, where once 40,000 people built cars at the famous Ford factory. The plant stopped making cars in 2002 and now makes vast numbers of car engines, but with fewer than 3,000 employees. Barking and Dagenham is judged by the Legatum Institute as the least prosperous borough in London and among the 10 least prosperous in the UK. The unemployment rate is one of the highest in London. As automation moves from the factory floor to the office, Michael Sandel and his audience will try to understand how we regard the ethics surrounding this profound shift.

Producer: Tim Mansel.

Harvard philosopher Michael Sandel asks if life would be better if robots did all the work

Political philosopher Michael Sandel examines the thinking behind a current controversy.

Should Universities Give Preference To Applicants From Poor Backgrounds?

20120403

We're going to engage in an experiment ....an experiment in public philosophy. We sometimes think that philosophy is remote, abstract and distant from the world we actually inhabit. I think otherwise. So says the eminent Harvard political philosopher Michael Sandel as he challenges an audience to examine the big ideas, the big philosophical questions that lie behind our views.

In a series of public events, recorded at the London School of Economics, he brings his trademark style to a discussion on a current issue. This week, he delves into the thorny issue of access to universities. Should students from poor backgrounds be given priority in admissions? he asks. He demands a show of hands. The brave ones volunteer to explain the thinking behind their views.

The audience is swept along. Who decides if you're from a poor background...what does that mean to come from a poor background? The way our system works right now is fair because we're just numbers says Georgia, arguing that academic results are all that matter.

Fazal's view, reflecting his experience of American universities, is very different. On one piece of paper you're writing down your experiences, your grades. On the other you're writing down your financial background...how much money you can potentially pay.

Throughout, Michael Sandel acts as referee, thinker and devil's advocate.

His lectures to Harvard undergraduates have been described as spellbinding...an exhilarating journey. They are popular, provocative and interactive. Now he brings that approach to Radio 4.

Producer: Adele Armstrong.

Harvard political philosopher Michael Sandel questions the thinking beneath controversies.

Political philosopher Michael Sandel examines the thinking behind a current controversy.

Should A Banker Be Paid More Than A Nurse?

20120410

The eminent Harvard political philosopher Michael Sandel brings his trademark style to a discussion on a topical issue, questioning the thinking underlying a current controversy. This week, he digs deep into the morality of high pay and bankers' bonuses.

My image of a banker is an overweight man behind a desk says Alice. The audience bursts into laughter. My image of a nurse, she goes on, is an overworked woman who works night shifts and is constantly on her feet.

Michael Sandel asks So by that logic, Alice, maybe there's a case for paying nurses more than bankers. Am I right?

Alice agrees and so begins Michael Sandel's journey through the morality of fair pay.

He explores whether fair pay is a question of the importance of the contribution one makes, whether it is a reward for effort ...and whether it's the market that should define how much people should get paid.

He questions whether Wayne Rooney gets the pay he deserves for kicking a pigskin around a field for a certain period of time.

In this series of public events, recorded at the London School of Economics, he challenges his audience to apply critical thinking and philosophical reasoning to a host of ethical dilemmas most people rely on gut instinct to resolve.

Producer: Adele Armstrong.

Harvard political philosopher Michael Sandel questions the thinking beneath controversies.

Political philosopher Michael Sandel examines the thinking behind a current controversy.

Should We Bribe People To Be Healthy?

20120417

The eminent Harvard political philosopher Michael Sandel brings his trademark style to a discussion on a current issue, questioning the thinking underlying a current controversy This week, he takes a provocative look at the controversial subject of incentivising good health.

Michael Sandel has been enthralling students at Harvard for years. These discussions - recorded in front of an audience at the London School of Economics - bring his trademark style to Radio 4. They're challenging, outspoken and interactive.

Sandel turns his attention to health and ponders whether the present constraints on the NHS leave us with no choice but to bribe people to be healthy. Profound moral questions lie behind paying people to lose weight, quit smoking or abandon alcohol. Michael Sandel weaves through these issues with the help of philosophers past and present.

Producer: Adele Armstrong.

Questioning the morality of paying people to lose weight, quit smoking or abandon alcohol.

Political philosopher Michael Sandel examines the thinking behind a current controversy.

Immigration

20121023

The eminent Harvard political philosopher Michael Sandel is Radio 4's Public Philosopher. Now, as America prepares for its Presidential elections, he and Radio 4 are going on the road in America with a unique mission to lay bare the deeper moral questions bound up in the noisy Romney and Obama campaigns.

In this week's programme, Professor Sandel visits the heartland of America's deep south, hosting a public discussion at the University of Dallas in Texas. He challenges ordinary Texans to consider the moral issues raised when it comes to controlling immigration and deciding who should be entitled to citizenship.

Texas has a long frontier with Mexico and the issue of immigration divides people sharply. A million people in Texas are undocumented living without immigration papers. Many Hispanic voters want immigration to be reformed and President Obama recently outlined initiatives aimed at this base. Mitt Romney, too, is reaching out to Hispanic voters but many in the Tea Party movement pull the Republicans in the other direction. They insist that the border must be closed and deportations must be stepped up.

Against this backdrop, our public audience will be asked: how far should an open society go on accepting outsiders? Michael Sandel weaves through these issues with the help of philosophers past and present.

Producer: Mukul Devichand.

Prof Michael Sandel discusses the philosophy of immigration with a Texan audience.

Political philosopher Michael Sandel examines the thinking behind a current controversy.

Welfare

20121030

The eminent American political philosopher Michael Sandel is Radio 4's Public Philosopher. Now, as America prepares for its Presidential elections, he is going on the road in America with a unique mission to challenge ordinary voters and lay bare the deeper moral questions bound up in the noisy Romney and Obama campaigns.

In this week's programme, Professor Sandel is at Harvard, his home university in the intellectual heartland of New England. Much of the debate between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama has been about welfare policy, social security and healthcare. Underlying this, Professor Sandel believes, is a moral and philosophical disagreement about the nature of the American dream itself.

Earlier this year, Obama was attacked for his remarks about the role of government. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive, the President said. If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen. Republicans saw this as an attack on business and accused Obama of stifling the idea of individual success at the core of the American dream. The right's policies are more focussed on individual choice -- lowering taxes and opposing, for example, the type of universal health care policy which Obama has enacted.

Against this backdrop, our public audience will be asked: Who Built It? Is the American vision of individual responsibility for one's own success a myth? Michael Sandel weaves through these issues with the help of philosophers past and present.

Producer: Mukul Devichand.

Prof Michael Sandel discusses the philosophy of welfare benefits with a Boston audience.

Political philosopher Michael Sandel examines the thinking behind a current controversy.

Morality and the State

20140513

Should governments try to influence private morality? Michael Sandel, The Public Philosopher, is back with a new series. In this first programme he is at the University of Utrecht in The Netherlands, one of the world's most permissive countries. It has liberal laws on prostitution, cannabis and euthanasia. Professor Sandel leads a discussion about the role of the state in shaping and policing our moral values.

Michael Sandel asks if governments should try to influence private morality.

Political philosopher Michael Sandel examines the thinking behind a current controversy.

Why Vote?

20140520

Should it be compulsory to vote? Should we fine people who don't vote? Should we pay people to vote? This is the week that the UK goes to the polls - amid ongoing concerns about the level of democratic participation. In this edition of The Public Philosopher, Harvard professor Michael Sandel hosts a discussion about voting, with an audience at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Michael Sandel hosts a discussion about voting with an audience at the LSE.

Political philosopher Michael Sandel examines the thinking behind a current controversy.

National Guilt

20140527

Imagine a country guilty of past crimes. What obligations do its current citizens have to make amends? In this edition of The Public Philosopher, Michael Sandel poses that question to an audience in Japan. The discussion involves students from Japan and from China and South Korea - countries which were victims of Japanese aggression during the Second World War.

Michael Sandel hosts a discussion about national guilt with an audience in Japan.

Political philosopher Michael Sandel examines the thinking behind a current controversy.

Episodes

Series	Episode	Title	First Broadcast	Comments
		Will AI make thinking obsolete?	20190826	Would you choose an algorithm rather than a human to mark your exam papers? Would you welcome a translation app that replaced foreign language learning? Would you trust a marriage prediction app to choose your life partner? Professor Michael Sandel of Harvard University - Radio 4's 'Public Philosopher' - puts these and other questions to an audience of students at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He generates a debate on the relationship between artificial intelligence and human decision-making, asking how far faith in technology depends on a mistrust of human subjectivity. Producer: Sheila Cook Professor Michael Sandel debates AI and decision-making at the London School of Economics. Political philosopher Michael Sandel examines the thinking behind a current controversy.
	03	Is rape worse than other violent crime?	20130326	Is rape a worse crime than other forms of violent assault? Should verbal sexual harassment be banned? These are two questions put by Harvard's Michael Sandel - BBC Radio 4's 'Public Philosopher' - who takes the programme to an audience at the Jaipur Literature Festival. The discussion follows the brutal rape and murder of a young woman in Delhi at the end of last year, a crime that provoked a national outcry in India. Prof Michael Sandel is in India to discuss the philosophy of violence. Political philosopher Michael Sandel examines the thinking behind a current controversy.
	03	Why Democracy?	20150314	Harvard professor Michael Sandel is Radio 4's 'Public Philosopher', guiding audiences through complex moral philosophical dilemmas. For the BBC's Democracy Day, Professor Sandel recorded this special edition of The Public Philosopher inside the Palace of Westminster, challenging his audience of MPs, Peers and the public to think deeply about the true nature of democracy. Producer: Ian Muir-Cochrane Editor: Richard Knight. Professor Michael Sandel explores democracy with a group of MPs, peers and the public. Political philosopher Michael Sandel examines the thinking behind a current controversy.
	05	Would life be better if robots did all the work?	20170307	Harvard philosopher Michael Sandel asks if life would be better if robots did all the work. Professor Sandel skilfully and entertainingly uses live audiences to help address important ethical and philosophical questions. He has travelled across the world and brought together global audiences for his method of Socratic dialogue. Michael gathers an audience in a secondary school in Dagenham, East London, to address one of the most pressing issues of our times - the future of work in a world where automation threatens to replace more and more workers with robots. A much-cited Oxford University report predicts that 35% of jobs in the UK are at risk. There is nowhere better to examine this issue than Dagenham, where once 40,000 people built cars at the famous Ford factory. The plant stopped making cars in 2002 and now makes vast numbers of car engines, but with fewer than 3,000 employees. Barking and Dagenham is judged by the Legatum Institute as the least prosperous borough in London and among the 10 least prosperous in the UK. The unemployment rate is one of the highest in London. As automation moves from the factory floor to the office, Michael Sandel and his audience will try to understand how we regard the ethics surrounding this profound shift. Producer: Tim Mansel. Harvard philosopher Michael Sandel asks if life would be better if robots did all the work Political philosopher Michael Sandel examines the thinking behind a current controversy.
01	01	Should Universities Give Preference To Applicants From Poor Backgrounds?	20120403	We're going to engage in an experiment ....an experiment in public philosophy. We sometimes think that philosophy is remote, abstract and distant from the world we actually inhabit. I think otherwise. So says the eminent Harvard political philosopher Michael Sandel as he challenges an audience to examine the big ideas, the big philosophical questions that lie behind our views. In a series of public events, recorded at the London School of Economics, he brings his trademark style to a discussion on a current issue. This week, he delves into the thorny issue of access to universities. Should students from poor backgrounds be given priority in admissions? he asks. He demands a show of hands. The brave ones volunteer to explain the thinking behind their views. The audience is swept along. Who decides if you're from a poor background...what does that mean to come from a poor background? The way our system works right now is fair because we're just numbers says Georgia, arguing that academic results are all that matter. Fazal's view, reflecting his experience of American universities, is very different. On one piece of paper you're writing down your experiences, your grades. On the other you're writing down your financial background...how much money you can potentially pay. Throughout, Michael Sandel acts as referee, thinker and devil's advocate. His lectures to Harvard undergraduates have been described as spellbinding...an exhilarating journey. They are popular, provocative and interactive. Now he brings that approach to Radio 4. Producer: Adele Armstrong. Harvard political philosopher Michael Sandel questions the thinking beneath controversies. Political philosopher Michael Sandel examines the thinking behind a current controversy.
01	02	Should A Banker Be Paid More Than A Nurse?	20120410	The eminent Harvard political philosopher Michael Sandel brings his trademark style to a discussion on a topical issue, questioning the thinking underlying a current controversy. This week, he digs deep into the morality of high pay and bankers' bonuses. My image of a banker is an overweight man behind a desk says Alice. The audience bursts into laughter. My image of a nurse, she goes on, is an overworked woman who works night shifts and is constantly on her feet. Michael Sandel asks So by that logic, Alice, maybe there's a case for paying nurses more than bankers. Am I right? Alice agrees and so begins Michael Sandel's journey through the morality of fair pay. He explores whether fair pay is a question of the importance of the contribution one makes, whether it is a reward for effort ...and whether it's the market that should define how much people should get paid. He questions whether Wayne Rooney gets the pay he deserves for kicking a pigskin around a field for a certain period of time. In this series of public events, recorded at the London School of Economics, he challenges his audience to apply critical thinking and philosophical reasoning to a host of ethical dilemmas most people rely on gut instinct to resolve. Producer: Adele Armstrong. Harvard political philosopher Michael Sandel questions the thinking beneath controversies. Political philosopher Michael Sandel examines the thinking behind a current controversy.
01	03	Should We Bribe People To Be Healthy?	20120417	The eminent Harvard political philosopher Michael Sandel brings his trademark style to a discussion on a current issue, questioning the thinking underlying a current controversy This week, he takes a provocative look at the controversial subject of incentivising good health. Michael Sandel has been enthralling students at Harvard for years. These discussions - recorded in front of an audience at the London School of Economics - bring his trademark style to Radio 4. They're challenging, outspoken and interactive. Sandel turns his attention to health and ponders whether the present constraints on the NHS leave us with no choice but to bribe people to be healthy. Profound moral questions lie behind paying people to lose weight, quit smoking or abandon alcohol. Michael Sandel weaves through these issues with the help of philosophers past and present. Producer: Adele Armstrong. Questioning the morality of paying people to lose weight, quit smoking or abandon alcohol. Political philosopher Michael Sandel examines the thinking behind a current controversy.
02	01	Immigration	20121023	The eminent Harvard political philosopher Michael Sandel is Radio 4's Public Philosopher. Now, as America prepares for its Presidential elections, he and Radio 4 are going on the road in America with a unique mission to lay bare the deeper moral questions bound up in the noisy Romney and Obama campaigns. In this week's programme, Professor Sandel visits the heartland of America's deep south, hosting a public discussion at the University of Dallas in Texas. He challenges ordinary Texans to consider the moral issues raised when it comes to controlling immigration and deciding who should be entitled to citizenship. Texas has a long frontier with Mexico and the issue of immigration divides people sharply. A million people in Texas are undocumented living without immigration papers. Many Hispanic voters want immigration to be reformed and President Obama recently outlined initiatives aimed at this base. Mitt Romney, too, is reaching out to Hispanic voters but many in the Tea Party movement pull the Republicans in the other direction. They insist that the border must be closed and deportations must be stepped up. Against this backdrop, our public audience will be asked: how far should an open society go on accepting outsiders? Michael Sandel weaves through these issues with the help of philosophers past and present. Producer: Mukul Devichand. Prof Michael Sandel discusses the philosophy of immigration with a Texan audience. Political philosopher Michael Sandel examines the thinking behind a current controversy.
02	02	Welfare	20121030	The eminent American political philosopher Michael Sandel is Radio 4's Public Philosopher. Now, as America prepares for its Presidential elections, he is going on the road in America with a unique mission to challenge ordinary voters and lay bare the deeper moral questions bound up in the noisy Romney and Obama campaigns. In this week's programme, Professor Sandel is at Harvard, his home university in the intellectual heartland of New England. Much of the debate between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama has been about welfare policy, social security and healthcare. Underlying this, Professor Sandel believes, is a moral and philosophical disagreement about the nature of the American dream itself. Earlier this year, Obama was attacked for his remarks about the role of government. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive, the President said. If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen. Republicans saw this as an attack on business and accused Obama of stifling the idea of individual success at the core of the American dream. The right's policies are more focussed on individual choice -- lowering taxes and opposing, for example, the type of universal health care policy which Obama has enacted. Against this backdrop, our public audience will be asked: Who Built It? Is the American vision of individual responsibility for one's own success a myth? Michael Sandel weaves through these issues with the help of philosophers past and present. Producer: Mukul Devichand. Prof Michael Sandel discusses the philosophy of welfare benefits with a Boston audience. Political philosopher Michael Sandel examines the thinking behind a current controversy.
03	01	Morality and the State	20140513	Should governments try to influence private morality? Michael Sandel, The Public Philosopher, is back with a new series. In this first programme he is at the University of Utrecht in The Netherlands, one of the world's most permissive countries. It has liberal laws on prostitution, cannabis and euthanasia. Professor Sandel leads a discussion about the role of the state in shaping and policing our moral values. Michael Sandel asks if governments should try to influence private morality. Political philosopher Michael Sandel examines the thinking behind a current controversy.
03	02	Why Vote?	20140520	Should it be compulsory to vote? Should we fine people who don't vote? Should we pay people to vote? This is the week that the UK goes to the polls - amid ongoing concerns about the level of democratic participation. In this edition of The Public Philosopher, Harvard professor Michael Sandel hosts a discussion about voting, with an audience at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Michael Sandel hosts a discussion about voting with an audience at the LSE. Political philosopher Michael Sandel examines the thinking behind a current controversy.
03	03	National Guilt	20140527	Imagine a country guilty of past crimes. What obligations do its current citizens have to make amends? In this edition of The Public Philosopher, Michael Sandel poses that question to an audience in Japan. The discussion involves students from Japan and from China and South Korea - countries which were victims of Japanese aggression during the Second World War. Michael Sandel hosts a discussion about national guilt with an audience in Japan. Political philosopher Michael Sandel examines the thinking behind a current controversy.