Ética y Justicia. Reflexiones a partir de The Idea of Justice de Amartya Sen

Ethics and justice. Reflections on The Idea of ​​Justice by Amartya Sen

Javier Mejia

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: This paper carries out a brief analysis of Amartya Sen’s thinking on Justice, based on Part IV of his book The Idea of Justice. Besides of describing Sen’s thoughts on the subject, the paper aims to contextualize it in the evolution of Sen’s work and in the general discussion on Justice in economic theory, reconsidering his identity as a non utilitarian philosopher and reevaluating its importance in the history of economic thought. This work is important because it contributes to a better understanding of the most recent ideas of one of the most influential thinkers in moral discussion. The theory of Justice proposed by Sen has clear pragmatic features and does not pretend to determine an ideal set of conditions under which one can speak of absolute justice. In his theory, Justice does not require the existence of particular institutions, the subsistence of identical preferences among the members of society or the development of specific behaviors. The argumentative axis of his theory is the concept of public reasoning, whereby society would have to determine what Justice is about. Thus, Sen analyzes the main elements that would affect public reasoning in a society, including Democracy, as the ideal system for social dialogue, and Liberty, as a key factor of human welfare.

Keywords: Amartya Sen; Ethics; Justice; Utilitarianism; Consequentialism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 B31 B41 D63 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-03-13
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his and nep-hpe
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