Wednesday, January 4, 2012

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


Many thanks for being there yesterday. It was great to see you all!


The reading for the next session is: 
Amartya Sen, 'Capability and Well-being', Chapter 2 of The Quality of Life edited by Sen and Nussbaum, 1993.



Date: 10 January 2012 (Tuesday)

Time: 3.00 pm - 5.00 pm

Venue: Room 56, First Floor, Arts Faculty Building, University of Delhi

Reading/lecture questions
1. What is meant by 'advantage'?
2. What does Sen mean by 'capabilities', 'capability', well-being freedom, well-being achievement, agency freedom, agency achievement?
3. Which goods constitute advantage?
4. Why is it capabilities that matter most for distributive justice?

Discussion questions
1. Who is to decide which capabilities are valuable? Experts? The people?
2. For Germans, eating well might involve rye bread, not rotis, while for Indians, eating well might involve rotis, but not rye bread. How can there be a single capability, if there is no single standard for its achievement?
3. Nussbaum's challenge: Don’t we need a single list of all essential capabilities?
4. Sen has discussed only individual capabilities. Aren’t group capabilities also important – for instance the capability of a tribal or ethnic group to maintain their culture?

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