We host Harvard’s Michael Sandel on May 9th at All Saints Church in Pasadena. He’ll be in conversation with Patt Morrison, Los Angeles Times columnist and host of The Patt Morrison Show on KPCC. Ticket info here…

He argues that the spread of ‘market philosophy’ has created what he calls “a consumerist idea of freedom,” in which we think our highest freedom is what we consume. Our obsession with consumption limits our freedom to engage in a full civic life.  He applauds markets for driving economic prosperity around the world, but he still thinks markets shouldn’t replace our moral judgment.  His hugely popular course he teaches at Harvard, “Justice,” was broadcast on PBS and the BBC.

Should we pay children to read books or to get good grades?  Should we put a price on human life?  Decide how much pollution to allow? Is it ethical to pay people to test risky new drugs or to donate their organs?  What about hiring mercenaries to fight our wars, outsourcing inmates to for- profit prisons, auctioning admission to elite universities, or selling citizenship to immigrants willing to pay?  Hear what Sandel has to say on the “moral limits of markets.”