Description

A team of distinguished academics explore the ideas underlying Amartya Sen's critique of traditional approaches to injustice. This book brings together a team of distinguished academics to explore the ideas underlying Amartya Sen's critique of traditional approaches to injustice. The centrepiece of the book is the first chapter by Sen in which he outlines his conception of the relationship between economics, ethics and law. This book brings together a team of distinguished academics to explore the ideas underlying Amartya Sen's critique of traditional approaches to injustice. The centrepiece of the book is the first chapter by Sen in which he outlines his conception of the relationship between economics, ethics and law. Traditional theories of justice as formulated by political philosophers, jurists and economists have all tended to see injustice as simply a breach of justice, a breakdown of the normal order. Amartya Sen's work acts as a corrective to this tradition by arguing that we can recognise patent injustices, and come to a reasoned agreement about the need to remedy them, without reference to an explicit theory of justice. Against Injustice brings together distinguished academics from a variety of different fields - including economics, law, philosophy and anthropology - to explore the ideas underlying Sen's critique of traditional approaches to injustice. The centrepiece of the book is the first chapter by Sen in which he outlines his conception of the relationship between economics, ethics and law. The rest of the book addresses a variety of theoretical and empirical issues that relate to this conception, concluding with a response from Sen to his critics. List of figures; List of tables; List of contributors; Introduction Reiko Gotoh and Paul Dumouchel; Part I: 1. Economics, law and ethics Amartya Sen; 2. Neorepublicanism and Sen's economic, legal and ethical desiderata Philip Pettit; 3. The Prajâpati test: response to Amartya Sen Marcel Hénaff; Part II: 4. The power of a democratic public Philip Pettit; 5. The challenge of gender justice Martha C. Nussbaum; 6. Gift, market, and social justice Marcel Hénaff; 7. Justice and public reciprocity Reiko Gotoh; 8. Reasoning with preferences? John Broome; 9. Conceptions of individual rights and freedom in welfare economics: a re-examination Prasanta K. Pattanaik and Yongsheng Xu; Part III: 10. On synthetic indices of multidimensional well-being: health and income inequalities in France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom Andrea Brandolini; 11. Assessing children's capabilities: operationalising metrics for evaluating music programs to poor children in Brazilian primary schools Flavio Comim; 12. The search for socially sustainable development Jean-Luc Dubois; Part IV: 13. Response Amartya Sen; Index. Review of the hardback: 'What is missing in current economics, but takes centre stage in Against Injustice, is Amartya Sen's view that commitment goes beyond sympathetic self-interestedness. Commitment matters, in practical terms, because it binds together organizations and legal systems. It is what makes them work. Since almost all economic activity takes place either within organizations or under the legal system, this book, based as it is on Sen's world view, takes on the most important issues in economics today.' George Akerlof, University of California, Berkeley, and Nobel Laureate in Economics, 2001