Michael Sandel on the Moral Limits of Markets

Intelligence Squared

News, Society & Culture, Arts, News Commentary

4.2 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 6 May 2016

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Should we pay children to get good grades? Is it ethical to pay people to test risky new drugs or to donate their organs? What about hiring mercenaries to fight our wars, or selling citizenship to immigrants willing to pay? Michael Sandel is one of the world's most acclaimed and popular political philosophers. He has given the BBC Reith lectures and his online lectures for Harvard University attract millions of views. In this talk from May 2012 he looked at the role of markets in a democratic society, and asked how can we protect the moral and civic goods that markets do not honour and money cannot buy? — We’d love to hear your feedback and what you think we should talk about next, who we should have on and what our future debates should be. Send us an email or voice note with your thoughts to podcasts@intelligencesquared.com or Tweet us @intelligence2. And if you’d like to support our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations, as well as ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content, early access and much more, become a supporter of Intelligence Squared.. Just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:49.0	Thank you for downloading this Intelligence Square podcast.
0:53.0	For more information on our debates, talks and discussions,
0:56.0	visit Intelligents Square.com and sign up to the newsletter.
1:00.0	Tonight we're going to have not a lecture exactly, but a discussion, or a lecture with discussion,
1:08.8	about one moral dilemma that looms very large in our society today. It's the subject of the new book.
1:17.8	The question is simple to state but not so easy to answer. what role should money and markets play in our society? Today there are
1:30.0	very few things that money can't buy. If you happen ever to be convicted to a
1:40.2	jail sentence in Santa Barbara, California, just in case.
1:46.1	You might like to know that if you don't like the standard accommodations, you can buy a prison cell upgrade.
1:55.0	How much do you suppose it costs?
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	...

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