Focusing on one of the following authors, explore the contribution of political philosophy and applied ethics to the development of a discourse of global justice which is both normatively attractive and public policy relevant: Thomas Pogge, Peter Singer, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Martha Nussbaum, Amartya Sen, James Chistensen or Mathias Risse. - PO-235 - Melanie Sinder
Amartya Sen’s contributions to Welfare economics, and to the study of
Social Choice Theory granted him the Nobel Prize in economics in 1998. But the
work presented in his countless books and articles extends beyond the field of
economics into the study of ethics. Sen has been one of the main scholars in the
advancement of the Capability approach to (global) justice and development
studies, proving an innovative account based on public reasoning, which is
critical of the “mainstream” conceptions of justice today. Sen’s work has been
relevant in the enhancement of multidimensional statistics focused on welfare
and human capabilities, as well as income, providing a more complete
assessment of a person’s disadvantages. This shift in the conception of global
justice, which has been heavily inspired by Sen, has been captured by changes
in the study of poverty and in new policies and programmes of NGOs around the
world. The introduction of the Human Development Index to the UN
development programme was heavily inspired by Sen’s research and ideas. This
essay will focus mainly on one of Sen’s most recent books, The Idea of Justice
(2009), its arguments and its limitations. But it will also explore the overall
significance of his work to political philosophy and real-life policies.
It is important to note that Sen’s research on justice is set on a
comparative framework that rejects “transcendental institutionalism”. Sen
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