What Shouldn't be Sold

"I don't think of it as constraining peoples' freedom. I think of it as taking on an impoverished conception of freedom that is concerned only with individual or consumer choice in the marketplace."

Professor Mike Sandel explores issues surrounding controversial forms of wage labor and market transactions, such as paid surrogacy, prostitution as well as buying and selling body parts in a conversation on Philosophy Bites with host Nigel Warburton. Is consent on the part of the seller enough? What's the limit of what the market should decide? Excellent questions and responsiveness from Nigel Warburton. A great conversation starter and philosophical brain teaser.

Link to Philosophy Bites page for the episode

I've started working my way through the back catalog of Philosophy Bites, a podcast that produces short interviews with philosophers on specific topics. So in that way it is, they are, "bites." (I'm not going to talk about the whole "bites" name thing. I. am. not.) Anyways, it's clear that the creators, Nigel Warburton and David Edmonds, go into each interview with enough background knowledge to steer the conversation in a meaningful direction. I have a long ways to go in terms of catching up but here are two episodes that I enjoyed so far.
(Philosophy Bites is also available on itunes).

Jeff McMahan on Vegetarianism
Goes into strange territory.




Pat Churchland on Eliminative Materialism
 Her herky jerk over-enunciation can be a little grating, but I like how she manages to talk about her and her husband's theories as well as their academic experience trying to advance the them.



PHOTO:STEPHMCG