Rationality and Freedom

Rationality and Freedom
Author: Amartya Sen
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 756
Release: 2004-03-30
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780674013513

Rationality and freedom are among the most profound and contentious concepts in philosophy and the social sciences. In this, the first of two volumes, Amartya Sen brings clarity and insight to these difficult issues.

Collective Choice and Social Welfare

Collective Choice and Social Welfare
Author: Amartya Sen
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 641
Release: 2018-05-17
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0674919211

Originally published in 1970, this classic study has been recognized for its groundbreaking role in integrating economics and ethics, and for its influence in opening up new areas of research in social choice, including aggregative assessment. It has also had a large influence on international organizations, including the United Nations, notably in its work on human development. The book showed that the “impossibility theorems” in social choice theory—led by the pioneering work of Kenneth Arrow—do not negate the possibility of reasoned and democratic social choice. Sen’s ideas about social choice, welfare economics, inequality, poverty, and human rights have continued to evolve since the book’s first appearance. This expanded edition preserves the text of the original while presenting eleven new chapters of fresh arguments and results. “Expanding on the early work of Condorcet, Pareto, Arrow, and others, Sen provides rigorous mathematical argumentation on the merits of voting mechanisms...For those with graduate training, it will serve as a frequently consulted reference and a necessity on one’s book shelf.” —J. F. O’Connell, Choice

Choice, Welfare and Measurement

Choice, Welfare and Measurement
Author: Amartya Sen
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 480
Release: 1997
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780674127784

"Choice, Welfare and Measurement contains many of Amartya Sen's most important contributions to economic analysis and methods, including papers on individual and social choice, preference and rationality, and aggregation and economic measurement. A substantial introductory essay interrelates his diverse concerns, and also analyzes discussions generated by the original papers, focusing on the underlying issues."--P. [4] of cover.

Amartya Sen

Amartya Sen
Author: Lawrence Hamilton
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 212
Release: 2019-06-10
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1509519866

Amartya Sen is one of the world’s best-known voices for the poor, the destitute and the downtrodden and an inspiration for policy makers and activists across the globe. He has also contributed almost without peer to the study of economics, philosophy and politics, transforming social choice theory, development economics, ethics, political philosophy and Indian political economy, to list but a few. This book offers a much-needed introduction to Amartya Sen’s extraordinary variety of ideas. Lawrence Hamilton provides an excellent, accessible guide to the full range of Sen’s writings, contextualizing his ideas and summarizing the associated debates. In elegant prose, Hamilton reconstructs Sen’s critiques of the major philosophies of his time, assesses his now famous concern for capabilities as an alternative for thinking about poverty, inequality, gender discrimination, development, democracy and justice, and unearths some overlooked gems. Throughout, these major theoretical and philosophical achievements are subjected to rigorous scrutiny. Amartya Sen is a major work on one of the most influential economists and philosophers of the last couple of centuries. It will be invaluable to students and scholars across the humanities and social sciences and an excellent guide for policy makers, legislators and global activists.

The Idea of Justice

The Idea of Justice
Author: Amartya Sen
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 497
Release: 2011-05-31
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0674060474

Presents an analysis of what justice is, the transcendental theory of justice and its drawbacks, and a persuasive argument for a comparative perspective on justice that can guide us in the choice between alternatives.

Amartya Sen

Amartya Sen
Author: Christopher W. Morris
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2010
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0521852919

A volume of essays on aspects of Amartya Sen's hugely influential and multi-disciplinary work.

Amartya Sen and Rational Choice

Amartya Sen and Rational Choice
Author: Mark S. Peacock
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 152
Release: 2019-09-18
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0429583583

Are human beings motivated exclusively by self-interest? The orthodox theory of rational choice in economics thinks that they are. Amartya Sen disagrees, and his concept commitment is central to his vision of an alternative to mainstream rational choice theory. This book examines commitment as it has evolved in Sen's critique of orthodox rational choice theory. The in-depth focus on commitment reveals subtleties in the concept itself as well as in its relationships with other concepts which Sen develops in his critique of rational choice theory, for example preference, sympathy, weakness of will, agency, personhood, social norms, rights, self-welfare goal and self-goal choice. The book provides a comprehensive understanding of commitment and offers novel interpretations of the term as a way of strengthening its plausibility. Broadly in support of Sen’s conceptualization of rational choice, the book nevertheless reveals ambiguities and weaknesses in Sen’s conceptual framework, and it reformulates Sen’s concepts when doing so strengthens the claims he makes. The book also engages with critics of Sen and argues for the importance of commitment as a component in the theory of rational choice.

Amartya Sen and Rational Choice

Amartya Sen and Rational Choice
Author: Mark S. Peacock
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 229
Release: 2019-09-18
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0429581688

Are human beings motivated exclusively by self-interest? The orthodox theory of rational choice in economics thinks that they are. Amartya Sen disagrees, and his concept commitment is central to his vision of an alternative to mainstream rational choice theory. This book examines commitment as it has evolved in Sen's critique of orthodox rational choice theory. The in-depth focus on commitment reveals subtleties in the concept itself as well as in its relationships with other concepts which Sen develops in his critique of rational choice theory, for example preference, sympathy, weakness of will, agency, personhood, social norms, rights, self-welfare goal and self-goal choice. The book provides a comprehensive understanding of commitment and offers novel interpretations of the term as a way of strengthening its plausibility. Broadly in support of Sen’s conceptualization of rational choice, the book nevertheless reveals ambiguities and weaknesses in Sen’s conceptual framework, and it reformulates Sen’s concepts when doing so strengthens the claims he makes. The book also engages with critics of Sen and argues for the importance of commitment as a component in the theory of rational choice.

Choice, Preferences, and Procedures

Choice, Preferences, and Procedures
Author: Kotaro Suzumura
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 806
Release: 2016-06-06
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0674727444

Kotaro Suzumura is one of the world’s foremost thinkers in social choice theory and welfare economics. Bringing together essays that have become classics in the field, Choice, Preferences, and Procedures examines foundational issues of normative economics and collective decision making. Social choice theory seeks to critically assess and rationally design economic mechanisms for improving human life. An important part of Suzumura’s contribution over the past forty years has entailed fusion of abstract microeconomic ideas with an understanding of real-world economies in a coherent analysis. This volume of selected essays reveals the evolution of Suzumura’s thinking over his career. Groundbreaking papers explore the nature of individual and social choice and the idea of assigning value to freedom of choice, different forms of rationality, and concepts of individual rights, equity, and fairness. Suzumura elucidates his innovative approach for recognizing interpersonal comparisons in the vein of Adam Smith’s notion of sympathy and expounds the effect of paying due attention to nonconsequential features, such as the opportunity to choose and the procedure for decision making, along with the standard consequential features. Analyzing the role of economic competition, Suzumura points out how restricting competition may, in some circumstances, improve social welfare. This is not to recommend government regulation rather than market competition but to emphasize the importance of procedural features in a competitive context. He concludes with illuminating essays on the history of economic thought, focusing on the ideas of Vilfredo Pareto, Arthur Pigou, John Hicks, and Paul Samuelson.

Consistency, Choice, and Rationality

Consistency, Choice, and Rationality
Author: Walter Bossert
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 231
Release: 2010-10-15
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0674052994

In Consistency, Choice, and Rationality, economic theorists Walter Bossert and Kotaro Suzumura present a thorough mathematical treatment of Suzumura consistency, an alternative to established coherence properties such as transitivity, quasi-transitivity, or acyclicity. Applications in individual and social choice theory, fields important not only to economics but also to philosophy and political science, are discussed. Specifically, the authors explore topics such as rational choice and revealed preference theory, and collective decision making in an atemporal framework as well as in an intergenerational setting.