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person1960s-present

Amartya Sen

Disciplines:
economics
political philosophy
ethics

Summary

Indian economist and philosopher who developed the capabilities approach to human development, contributed to social choice theory, and has been a central figure in political philosophy of development.

Core Contribution

Capabilities approach: human development should be assessed in terms of what people are able to be and do (capabilities), not just their income or utility. Poverty and Famines: famines are not caused by food shortages but by failures of entitlements — capability deprivations. Social choice theory: contributed to Arrow's impossibility framework and informational extensions. Development as Freedom: development is the expansion of real freedoms.

Key Spikes & Highlights

  • Poverty and Famines demonstrated with data that famines in Bengal (1943) and Bangladesh (1974) occurred when food was available and being exported — they were distribution failures, not production failures. This reoriented development policy.
  • The capabilities approach was partly a response to Rawls: Rawls's index of primary goods measures resources, but two people with the same resources may have very different capabilities if one has a disability — what matters is what people can actually do.
  • Won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1998 — the first Indian to win any Nobel Prize — for his contributions to welfare economics, but his influence on political philosophy has been at least as great.

Notable Works & Achievements

Collective Choice and Social Welfare

Poverty and Famines

The Standard of Living

Development as Freedom

The Idea of Justice

Historical Influences

Arrow John Rawls Adam Smith

Intellectual Lineage

Welfare Economics Analytic Political Philosophy

Contemporaries & Peers

John Rawls Martha Nussbaum

Minds Influenced

Development Economics Political Philosophy Martha Nussbaum

Intellectual Posterity

Capabilities Approach Development Economics

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