Michael Sandel OFFSITE @ First Congregational Church of Berkeley
discusses What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $27).
Clear and compelling, What Money Can't Buy offers the same immersive experience of moral philosophy as Justice, a quality that also defines Sandel’s enormously popular public lectures. Covering all aspects of life—from health to education, public safety to national security, criminal justice, environmental protection, sports and art, family life and personal relationships—Sandel delves into the difficult arguments missing from our public debates about the value being assigned by markets to nonmarket norms.
“The problem with our politics,” Sandel writes, “is not too much moral argument but too little . . . A debate about the moral limits of markets would enable us to decide, as a society, where markets serve the public good and where they don’t belong . . . The question of markets is really a question about how we want to live together. Do we want a society where everything is up for sale? Or are there certain moral and civic goods that markets do not honor and money cannot buy?”
Michael J. Sandel is the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government at Harvard University. His legendary ‘Justice’ course is the first Harvard course made freely available online (www.JusticeHarvard.org) and on television, and has been viewed by millions throughout the world.
Tickets $12 ($6 students, including OLLI) in advance only at Brown Paper Tickets online or 800-838-3006; $15 at the door (all)
In cooperation with Berkeley Arts & Letters (www.berkeleyarts.org)
