Session I - Challenging Theories of Justice: The Capability Approaches of Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum

Thank you everybody who registered for the course On Justice: Sen and Nussbaum. Please note that we begin our first session on 3 January 2012 (Tuesday) at 2:30 pm. We will be meeting at the Library, Department of Philosophy, Arts Faculty Building, University of Delhi.

The lecture, followed by discussion — a two hours programme — will be based on the first chapter of Amartya Sen's Inequality Reexamined, titled 'Equality of What?'. The speaker, Professor Jay Drydyk will presume a prior reading on the part of all the participants.

Questions to be addressed in the lecture

1.  What was the context of debate in which Sen wrote this piece?

2.  What are his arguments for the claim that every significant theory of justice must answer the ‘equality of what’ question? (Please consider this while reading Sen’s chapter.)

3.  What is the significance of these arguments, in the wider context of debate?

Questions for the discussion period

1.  Questions about the lecture.

2.  Concerning Sen’s first, historical argument that every significant theory of social arrangements calls for equality of something: are there further counter-examples? From Indian traditions?

3.  Concerning Sen’s second, theoretical argument, from impartiality or equal consideration:

(a) Is it just a Western idea that equal consideration matters?

(b) Is it just a modern idea that equal consideration matters?

(c) Does justice sometimes require that one is not impartial, but partial, for example towards one’s own family? Towards one’s own country?

(d) Is there also a question, ‘Equal consideration of what?’ For instance, libertarians would call for equal consideration of everyone’s liberty, utilitarians would call for equal consideration of everyone’s happiness, and so on. Would that undermine Sen’s argument?

4.  Other questions arising from the reading or from the discussion.