The Idea of Justice

From Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen, "The Idea of Justice" is a refreshing alternative approach to mainstream theories of justice. Is justice an ideal, for ever beyond our grasp, or something that may actually guide our practical decisions and enhance our lives? At the heart of Sen's argument is his insistence on the role of public reason in establishing what can make societies less unjust. But there are always choices to be made between alternative assessments of what is reasonable, and competing positions can each be well defended. Rather than rejecting these pluralities, we should use them to construct a theory of justice that can accommodate divergent points of view. Sen also inspiringly shows how the principles of justice in the modern world must avoid parochialism and address vital questions of global injustice. The breadth of vision, intellectual acuity and striking humanity of one of the world's leading public intellectuals have never been more clearly shown than in this remarkable book. "A major advance in contemporary thinking". (John Gray, "Literary Review"). "The most important contribution to the subject since John Rawls' "A Theory of Justice"". (Hilary Putnam, Harvard University). "Sen writes with dry wit, a feel for history and a relaxed cosmopolitanism ...a conviction that economists and philosophers are in business to improve the world burns on almost every page". ("Economist"). 'Sen's magisterial critique of the dominant mode of liberal political philosophy confirms him as the English-speaking world's pre-eminent public intellectual". ("New Statesman" Books of the Decade). Amartya Sen is Lamont University Professor at Harvard. He won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1998 and was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge 1998-2004. His most recent books are "The Argumentative Indian", "Identity and Violence" and "Development as Freedom". His books have been translated into thirty languages.

ISBN 0141037857   Pages 496 ISBN13 9780141037851 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 340 Publisher Penguin Books Ltd   Published in London Imprint Penguin Books Ltd   Height (mm) 198 Format Paperback   Width (mm) 129 Publication date 01 Jul 2010   Spine width (mm) 21 DEWEY 320.011   Academic level General DEWEY edition DC22

		Preface
		Acknowledgements
		Introduction An Approach to Justice		1
Part One		The Demands of Justice
1		Reason and Objectivity		31
2		Rawls and Beyond		52
3		Institutions and Persons		75
4		Voice and Social Choice		87
5		Impartiality and Objectivity		114
6		Closed and Open Impartiality		124
Part Two		Forms of Reasoning
7		Position, Relevance and Illusion		155
8		Rationality and Other People		174
9		Plurality of Impartial Reasons		194
10		Realizations, Consequences and Agency		208
Part Three		The Materials of Justice
11		Lives, Freedoms and Capabilities		225
12		Capabilities and Resources		253
13		Happiness, Well-being and Capabilities		269
14		Equality and Liberty		291
Part Four		Public Reasoning and Democracy
15		Democracy as Public Reason		321
16		The Practice of Democracy		338
17		Human Rights and Global Imperatives		355
18		Justice and the World		388
		Notes		417
		Name Index		451
		Subject Index		462

This is truly a remarkable book, written by a Nobel laureate and one of the greatest public intellectuals of our times. The book is well-written and the author's style is accessible to a wider readership. Not only is this book a must read for scholars and students in political philosophy, it may also appeal to the lay reader. - Dr. Evangelia Sembou



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Version	Price	Published	Edition
Hardback	£25.00	2009