Michael Sandel
The Celebrity Political Philosopher
Intro
Michael Sandel is one of the most influential modern-day political philosophers. The prominent figure has been described as having the “global profile of a rockstar” 1. He has delivered speeches on some of the most interesting and controversial moral and political issues pertinent to our lives not only in lecture halls, but in stadiums.1 His books, which cover a multitude of topics including justice, financial markets, and ethics have been translated into over 27 languages.2 So, what has made Sandel such a popular figure?
Sandel has revolutionized the way that we think about traditional economic markets; while typically, they are positioned as being detached from social spheres, Sandel has argued that market thinking and institutions have crept their way into multiple aspects of modern life and that they deserve some critical analysis.3 He seeks to use philosophy to enhance the perspective of sects that he believes do not spend enough time thinking about the moral implications of their mechanisms, whether it be to do with stem-cell research, immigration, the current COVID-19 crisis, or politics.
Philosophy estranges us from the familiar, not by supplying new information, but by inviting and provoking a new way of seeing. But, and here is the risk, once the familiar turns strange, it is never quite the same again.
– Michael Sander, in his public-lecture "Justices"4
About the Authors
Dan Pilat
Dan is a Co-Founder and Managing Director at The Decision Lab. He is a bestselling author of Intention - a book he wrote with Wiley on the mindful application of behavioral science in organizations. Dan has a background in organizational decision making, with a BComm in Decision & Information Systems from McGill University. He has worked on enterprise-level behavioral architecture at TD Securities and BMO Capital Markets, where he advised management on the implementation of systems processing billions of dollars per week. Driven by an appetite for the latest in technology, Dan created a course on business intelligence and lectured at McGill University, and has applied behavioral science to topics such as augmented and virtual reality.
Dr. Sekoul Krastev
Dr. Sekoul Krastev is a decision scientist and Co-Founder of The Decision Lab, one of the world's leading behavioral science consultancies. His team works with large organizations—Fortune 500 companies, governments, foundations and supernationals—to apply behavioral science and decision theory for social good. He holds a PhD in neuroscience from McGill University and is currently a visiting scholar at NYU. His work has been featured in academic journals as well as in The New York Times, Forbes, and Bloomberg. He is also the author of Intention (Wiley, 2024), a bestselling book on the science of human agency. Before founding The Decision Lab, he worked at the Boston Consulting Group and Google.
