Against Injustice: The New Ecoomics of Amartya Sen

Cambridge University Press, 9/2/2010
EAN 9780521182614, ISBN10: 0521182611

Paperback, 328 pages, 22.8 x 15.2 x 2.1 cm
Language: English

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.