Peking University, Dec. 13, 2012: Michael Sandel, a famous American political philosopher and a professor at Harvard University, delivered a public speech entitled “What Money Can’t Buy” in Peking University Hall. The lecture attracted students from different colleges and school at PKU.
Professor Sandel is best known for the Harvard course 'Justice', which is available to view online, and for his critique of John Rawls' A Theory of Justice in his Liberalism and the Limits of Justice (1982). He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2002.
PKU assistant president Li Qiang presided over the lecture and delivered a welcome speech.
Professor Sandel began his lecture by inviting all the people present to ponder over whether there is something wrong with today’s world and where everything is for sale? If so, what should be the role of money and markets in our society?
Professor Sandel initiated the discussion by asking the audience to vote on a hypothetical situation. Suppose there is a snowstorm, and is it acceptable to raise the price of snow shovels from 10 dollars to 20 dollars? According to the show of hands, the majority thought there was nothing inappropriate to raise the price. Then Professor Sandel launched a second round of vote. This time was about the fairness to raise the price of bottled water from 1 dollar to 10 dollars after a disaster, such as an earthquake. Contrary to the former vote, it turned out that the majority was against such increase in price.
A PKU student gave a possible explanation for such shift, “ In the shovel case, people can find other alternatives. If the price goes too high, few people will buy shovels from that store, which will cause the price of the snow shovel to drop to an appropriate level. But in the bottled water case, there is no time for the market to work as usual and people have no other alternatives. They will die once they stop drinking water for like three days.” After hearing the opinions from the audience, Professor Sandel summarized that people’s attitudes might change in different situations. As to material things like cars, almost all would agree to allocate the access to goods by market and money. But when it comes to the basic needs of a human being, necessity becomes the first thing to consider.
Since money has penetrated into all aspects of life, does its interference changes the meaning of the activity itself? To answer that question, Professor Sandel told us a story. The Swiss government planned to build a nuclear waste site in a very small village.A survey was conducted to find out whether the people there would agree to build such a site. The result showed that 51% of them supported the plan. Then the government promised each resident 8000 dollars per year for potential risks, in the hope of more approvals. However, the support rate dropped to 25%. Surprisingly, the reason behind this change was not that people began to question the security of the project. “People might support this plan out of patriotism or other possible reasons. But it proved that money does change the meaning of the offer,” Professor Sandel pointed out.
Then what role should money and market play in current society? Professor Sandel said, “we need to choose a good life which includes morals and values we care but money alone cannot offer.” Money may crowd out the upper reason of doing things, thus it is really the duty of our generation to reflect on the ingredients of a high-quality life.
The public lecture by Professor Michael Sandel is one of Beijing Forum Series Lectures. With the general theme of “The Harmony of Civilizations and Prosperity for All”, Beijing Forum has attracted famous politicians and noted scholars from more than 70 countries and regions around the world. Beijing Forum has held a series of lectures given by the world famous scholars, including Noam Chomsky from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Homi Bhabhafrom Harvard University, and dialogues on economy and the Confucius civilization.
Reported by: Li Chiyang
Edited by: Zhang Jiang
