Lecture by Michael J. Sandel. "This Is Not on Sale!"

Is there anything money cannot buy? From the right to contaminate the environment through to a visa or residence permit, it seems that everything is on sale. This is the belief of the political philosopher Michael J. Sandel, who states in his last book What Money Can't Buy. The Moral Limits of Markets (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012) that the logic of money has invaded every sphere of life, to such an extent that we have gone from having a market economy to being a market society. At a time in which inequalities are increasing and the greatly debilitated welfare state is on the verge of collapse, this commercialisation of life raises far-reaching ethical and political challenges. As Sandel formulates it, the main issues concern the role of the market in a democratic society and how to protect civic and moral values that money clearly cannot buy.

Marina Garcés, philosopher, will introduce the lecture.