Social justice: an ideal, forever beyond our grasp; or one of many practical possibilities? More than a matter of intellectual discourse, the idea of justice plays a real role in how - and how well - people live. And in this book the distinguished scholar Amartya Sen offers a powerful critique of the theory of social justice that, in its grip on social and political thinking, has long left practical realities far behind.
Author(s): Amartya Sen
Publisher: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
Year: 2009
Language: English
City: Cambridge, Mass
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction: An Approach to Justice
Part I The Demands of Justice
1. Reason and Objectivity
Critique of the enlightenment tradition
Akbar and the necessity of reason
Ethical objectivity and reasoned scrutiny
Adam Smith and the impartial spectator
The reach of reason
Reason, sentiments and the enlightenment
2. Rawls and Beyond
Justice as fairness: the rawlsian approach
From fairness to justice
Application of Rawlsian principles of justice
Some positive lessons from the Rawlsian approach
Problems that can be addressed effectively
Difficulties that need fresh investigation
(1) The Inescapable Relevance of Actual Behaviour
(2) Alternatives to the Contractarian Approach
(3) The Relevance of Global Perspectives
Justitia and justitium
3. Institutions and Persons
The contingent nature of institutional choice
Behavioural restriction through contractarian reasoning
Power and the need for countervailing
Institutions as foundations
4. Voice and Social Choice
Social choice theory as an approach
The reach of social choice theory
The distance between the transcendental and the comparative
Is the transcendental approach sufficient?
Is the transcendental approach necessary?
Do comparatives identify transcendence?
Social choice as a framework for reasoning
(1) Focus on the comparative, not just the transcendental
(2) Recognition of the inescapable plurality of competing principles
(3) Allowing and facilitating re-examination
(4) Permissibility of partial resolutions
(5) Diversity of interpretations and inputs
(6) Emphasis on precise articulation and reasoning
(7) Role of public reasoning in social choice
Mutual dependence of institutional reform and behavioural change
5. Impartiality and Objectivity
Impartiality, understanding and objectivity
Entanglements, language and communication
Public reasoning and objectivity
Different domains of impartiality
6. Closed and Open Impartiality
The original position and the limits of contractarianism
Citizens of a state and others beyond
Smith and Rawls
On Rawls’s interpretation of Smith
Limitations of the ‘original position’
Exclusionary neglect and global justice
Inclusionary incoherence and focal group plasticity
Closed impartiality and parochialism
Part II Forms of Reasoning
7. Position, Relevance and Illusion
Positionality of observation and knowledge
The illumination and illusion of positionality
Objective illusions and positional objectivity
Health, morbidity and positional variations
Gender discrimination and positional illusions
Positionality and the theory of justice
Overcoming positional limitations
Who is our neighbour?
8. Rationality and Other People
Rational decisions and actual choice
Rational choice versus so-called ‘rational choice theory’
The narrowing of mainstream economics
Self-interest, sympathy and commitment
Commitments and goals
9. Plurality of Impartial Reasons
What others cannot reasonably reject
The plurality of non-rejectability
The mutual benefits of cooperation
Contractarian reasoning and its reach
Power and its obligations
10. Realizations, Consequences and Agency
Arjuna’s arguments
Culmination and comprehensive outcomes
Consequences and realizations
Realizations and agencies
Part III The Materials of Justice
11. Lives, Freedoms and Capabilities
Valuing freedom
Freedom: opportunities and processes
The capability approach
Why go beyond achievement to opportunity?
Fear of non-commensurability
Valuation and public reasoning
Capabilities, individuals and communities
Sustainable development and the environment
12. Capabilities and Resources
Poverty as capability deprivation
Disability, resources and capability
Rawls’s use of primary goods
Departures from Rawlsian theory
Dworkin’s equality of resources
13. Happiness, Well-being and Capabilities
Happiness, capability and obligations
Economics and happiness
The reach and limits of happiness
The evidential interest of happiness
Utilitarianism and welfare economics
Informational limitations and impossibilities
Happiness, well-being and advantage
Health: perception and measurement
Well-being and freedom
14. Equality and Liberty
Equality, impartiality and substance
Capability, equality and other concerns
Capability and personal liberties
The plural features of freedom
Capability, dependence and interference
The impossibility of the paretian liberal
Social choice versus game forms
Part IV Public Reasoning and Democracy
15. Democracy as Public Reason
The content of democracy
The limited tradition of democracy?
The global origins of democracy
Is the global origins of democracy
The role of the press and the media
16. The Practice of Democracy
Famine prevention and public reasoning
Democracy and development
Human security and political power
Democracy and policy choice
Minority rights and inclusive priorities
17. Human Rights and Global Imperatives
What are human rights?
Ethics and law
Beyond the legislative route
Rights as freedoms
Opportunity and process aspects of freedom
Perfect and imperfect obligations
Freedom and interests
The plausibility of economic and social rights
Scrutiny, viability and use
18. Justice and the World
Wrath and reasoning
Justice being seen to be done
Plurality of reasons
Impartial reasoning and partial orderings
The reach of partial resolutions
A comparative framework
Justice and open impartiality
Non-parochialism as a requirement of justice
Justice, democracy and global reasoning
Social contract versus social choice
Differences and commonalities
Notes
preface
introduction
1 reason and objectivity
2 rawls and beyond
3 institutions and persons
4 voice and social choice
5 impartiality and objectivity
6 closed and open impartiality
7 position, relevance and illusion
8 rationality and other people
9 plurality of impartial reasons
10 realizations, consequences and agency
11 lives, freedoms and capabilities
12 capabilities and resources
13 happiness, well-being and capabilities
14 equality and liberty
15 democracy as public reason
16 the practice of democracy
17 human rights and global imperatives
18 justice and the world
Name Index
Subject Index
