Michael Sandel's Lecture

Michael Sandel’s lecture on justice on September 30, 2010 was fascinating not only for its content, but also for Sandel’s lecture style. Sandel challenged his audience to think about very difficult choices, choices that, hypothetically, would cost people their lives. He presented them with situations such as: if you were driving an out of control trolley car and had no choice but to hit someone, who would you hit? Five average people, or spare the five and kill the one person who had the cure to cancer? He proposed the question and allowed his audience to ponder their own answer and look to their own morals. Yet he never provided any concrete answers or forced his own opinion. The presentation was more of a conversation between Sandel and his audience than it was a lecture from an expert to college students.

            I found Michael Sandel’s presentation style to be very interesting and engaging. I especially liked that he entered into a dialogue with the people listening to him. He proved to be a very adept listener, constantly using his audience’s responses to construct the discussion. He displayed the wisdom of a teacher who knew his students and could change the lesson to suit their needs accordingly. Other qualities that I noticed about Sandel were his patience with people who had not quite kept up with the discussion and his ability to make hypothetical situations relevant to real life. Michael Sandel’s method of teaching through demonstration and active audience participation was very effective.