Michael Sandel on Business, Ethics and Morality

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Michael Sandel is one of the leading thinkers in the world on the ideas of justice and morality. He applies philosophy and ethics to help understand complex problems. He is the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government at Harvard University, where he teaches political philosophy. He has written extensively on justice, ethics, democracy and markets, and his course on justice is the first Harvard course made available free online.

Sandel's books include What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets; Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do?; and The Case against Perfection: Ethics in the Age of Genetic Engineering. He has served on the U.S. President's Council on Bioethics.

Recently in Cambridge, MA, IHRB's Salil Tripathi talked to Dr Sandel about business and human rights. To what extent does morality guide markets? Is it enough for business to comply with existing laws, or should it strive to do more? What responsibility does business have towards its workers, communities, and society at large?