Rationality and Freedom

Rationality and Freedom

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Author: Amartya Sen
:
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2003
Language: English
Pages: 736
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0195665287

Description

Rationality and Freedom are among the most profound and contentious concepts in philosophy and the social sciences. In this volume on rationality, freedom, and justice, the distinguished economist and philosopher Amartya Sen brings clarity and insight to these difficult issues.



Sen scrutinizes and departs from the standard criteria of rationality, and shows how it can be seen in terms of subjecting one’s values as well as choices to the demands of reason and critical scrutiny. This capacious approach is utilized to illuminate the demands of rationality in individual choice (including decisions under uncertainty) as well as social choice (including cost benefit analysis and environmental assessment).



Identifying a reciprocity in the relationship between rationality and freedom, Sen argues that freedom cannot be assessed independently of a person’s reasoned preferences and valuations, just as rationality, in turn, requires freedom of thought. Sen uses the discipline of social choice theory (a subject he has helped to develop) to illuminate the demands of reason and the assessment of freedom. The latter is the subject matter of Sen’s previously unpublished Arrow Lectures included here.

Contents

Preface



PART I: GENERAL INTRODUCTIONS



Introduction: Rationality and Freedom

The Possibility of social Choice



PART II: RATIONALITY: FORM AND SUBSTANCE



Internal Consistency of Choice

Maximization and the Act of Choice

Goals, Commitment, and Identity

Rationality and Uncertainty

Non-Binary Choice and Preference



PART III: RATIONALITY AND SOCIAL CHOICE



Rationality and Social Choice

Individual Preference as the Basis of Social Choice

Social Choice and Justice

Information and Invariance in Normative Choice



PART IV: LIBERTY AND SOCIAL CHOICE



Liberty and Social Choice

Minimal Liberty

Right: Formulation and Consequences



PART V: PERSPECTIVES AND POLICIES



Positional Objectivity

On the Darwinian view of Progress
Markets and Freedoms

Environmental Evaluation and Social Choice

The Discipline of Costa-Benefit Analysis



PART VI: FREEDOM AND SOCIAL CHOICE: THE ARROW LECTURES



Introductory Remarks

Opportunities and Freedoms

Processes, Liberty and Rights

Freedom and the Evaluation of Opportunity



Name Index



Subject Index