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REASONING ABOUT DEVELOPMENT: ESSAYS ON AMARTYA SEN’S CAPABILITY APPROACH
REDENEREN OVER ONTWIKKELING: ESSAYS OVER AMARTYA SEN’S CAPABILITY APPROACH
THESIS
to obtain the degree of Doctor from the Erasmus University Rotterdam by command of the rector magnificus
Prof.dr. H.G. Schmidt
and in accordance with the decision of the Doctorate Board.
The public defence shall be held on
Thursday 27 June 2013 at 13.30 hrs by
THOMAS RODHAM WELLS born in Zomba, Malawi.
Doctoral Committee
Promoters: Prof.dr. J.J. Vromen Prof.dr. I. Robeyns
Other members: Prof.dr. I. van Staveren Dr. R.J.G. Claassen Dr. G. van Oenen
Contents
Introduction: How Should We Think about Poverty and Development? .. 1 Chapter 1: An Outline of Sen’s Capability Approach ...... 12 Chapter 2: Two Critiques of Sen ...... 39 Chapter 3: Judgement in Sen’s Capability Approach ...... 59 Chapter 4. Sen’s Adaptive Preferences and Adam Smith’s Impartial Spectator ...... 88 Chapter 5: Transformation Without Paternalism ...... 111 Chapter 6. Which Capabilities Matter for Social Justice? Democratic Politics Versus Philosophy...... 145 Conclusion: Evaluation and Valuation ...... 180 Bibliography ...... 187 Appendix A: Nederlandse Samenvatting ...... 199 Appendix B: Curriculum Vitae...... 203
Introduction: How Should We Think about Poverty and Development?
Most of the world is enjoying the best standard of living, the greatest wealth, and the greatest freedom to live valuable and meaningful lives of any time in human history. But at the same time vast numbers of people are living lives of stark deprivation which are made even more appalling by the contrast. Indeed, it is the perspicuous contrast between the quality of life open to some people but not others that both defines and condemns poverty in the contemporary world: poverty is an unnecessary state of deprivation that can and should be remedied. In the poor world the general term for the removal of entrenched deprivation is ‘development’. Moreover, remediable deprivation exists not only in faraway places with small economies, armed conflicts, or government repression, but also within the rich world, with its homeless, jobless, sick, and socially excluded or stigmatised. Deprivation can co-exist with great opulence. For instance, even in a relatively wealthy country with an effective welfare state, where urgent and straightforward human physiological needs are largely met, there may be a great deal of absolutely real ‘relative poverty’, such as deprivation in the “social bases of self- respect” (cf Rawls 1999). The rich world too seems to be in need of development. We are continually confronted with images of poverty and its dramatic consequences for human lives on our television screens and newspapers, and also with public debate about how to understand it and what to do about it. But poverty is so pervasive that it seems to escape human comprehension let alone solution. There are vast numbers of people affected in many different contexts. Their poverty is apparent in many different ways, from poor health to disabilities to lack of opportunities or aspirations. The causes of poverty are likewise numerous and include the interaction of physiological, environmental, economic, social, and political factors.
The basic concern is with our capability to lead the kinds of lives we have reason to value. (Sen 1999a, 2