Inequality Reexamined

Highly influential in the discipline and in my own work.

Sen, a Nobel prize winner, has had many great ideas in his career, but this book just sticks to a few of them. The big point he hits early on is that all political theories are theories of egalitarianism: The only difference is how they answer the question, "Equality of what?"For instance, libertarians believe that everyone has an equal right to negative liberty, utilitarians believe in a right to an equal weighting in the arithmetic social well-being function, and Rawlsians believe in a right to equal "basic goods."Where does Sen fit in? A little hard to tell from this work--he's good at the "consider this alternative" style of writing--but he emphasizes a blend of utilitarianism and Rawlsianism, one that takes seriously what it would really mean to give every human being a decent shot at a humane life. His standards are actually quite low--non-utopian to be sure--but he looks in every nook and cranny and finds much more than you'd expect.In particular, Sen emphasizes how accidents of birth such as health create an underlying inequality across people that often can only be reversed at great expense. On a non-health-related issue, I often ask myself how many tax dollars the people of Britain had to pay to ensure that Salman Rushdie was able to enjoy his right to life and his right to free speech. The point, of course, is that it often costs quite a bit to guarantee some citizens the bare minimum of liberty.So egalitarianism requires unequal government action, as Rushdie himself could tell you. In many different ways, Sen makes this point throughout his text.If you're looking to read a book by Sen, I wouldn't make this the first one: Read his Development As Freedom first--it's his summary of his life's work, well written and deeply insightful. My economics students love reading Development As Freedom. But if you're looking for a second book by Sen, one that will challenge you and please you, I can recommend this book without hesitation.

I read this book in one sitting, and let me say it is a great book.It is odd so few books are written on such a basic philosophical question as equality, and reading mister Sen is akin to drinking a cold glass of water for a man in a desert of political philosophy.The prose is somewhat weak, the stye is stilted, and that oddly only seems to add to mister Sens' achievement: I never get the feeling that when I turn the next page I will be bored or watch him say something unnecessarily pedantic. The whole book is carried solely by the interesting subject at hand and mister Sens endlessly excellent commentary on it.That having been said, I agree with none of it. I do not value equality in any way, and my politics are thoroughly aristocratic and Old Right. So perhaps the possible reader should take that into account: I have nothing but praise for mister Sens books, and this book in particular is an excellent dive. Perhaps praise from a trenchant enemy is worth more than praise from the ideologically like minded.I will be reading it and making notes and attacks on it for a year to come, at the very least. No matter how you view equality, I advocate mister Sen without reservation. This is excellent. Please buy it.

The arguments are drawn out and repetitive. There is no clear definition of "capability" which is a key word in the argument

I just received my copy of this book thinking it contained current ideas of Amartya Sen only to discover it was published in 1992. Maybe they are still relevant. The one star is for the incorrect publishing info.

In Deutschland ist der ökonomische Ansatz von Amartya Sen außerhalb fachwissenschaftlicher Kreise vor allem über das Buch "Ökonomie für den Menschen" (2000) bekannt geworden. Der allgemein formulierte deutsche Titel täuschte aber darüber hinweg, dass Sen sich in jenem Buch auf die entwicklungsökonomischen Problemstellungen und somit stark auf bestimmte Anwendungsfragen konzentrierte (der Originaltitel lautete denn auch "Freedom as Development" [1999]). Ein weitaus konzisere Darstellung der theoretischen Grundlagen findet man in diesem Buch, das Sen bereits 1992 publiziert hat und das eine umfassende und immer noch gültige Darstellung dessen liefert, was heute unter dem Titel 'Capability Approach' bekannt ist. Das Buch ist auch für Nichtfachleute zugänglich, da sich Sen weitestgehend aller technischen Detaildarstellungen und -nachweise enthält.

gives you very helpful theories and concepts such as for example 'how freedom is not development!' But makes you do research on economics and search for some terms and concepts. it is a bit heavy on a newcomer to economics and requires some previous reading. Also another drawback for newcomers is that it directly uses statistical concepts and this becomes sort of skip the part!but overall a good buy if you are o.k. with doing some research.

Classic Sen. Not always easy, but mostly user friendly and of course first rate economics.

Kindle版なので辞書機能を使いながら読んでいます。内容はじっくり考えながら読むのでなかなか進みませんが、きちんと読み終えたいと思います。内容はアマルティアセンの著書ですから、もちろん文句なしに引き込まれます。書籍の問題ではなく、Kindleに導入されている辞書の問題ですが、kindleの英和辞典は、たとえば本文にある単語をクリックしても別品詞を参照するようにとの英単語が表示されるだけで結局意味が示されない単語が多いので不便です。多くの方の指摘にあるように、切り替えがその場でできるようでないのが残念です。

本の内容は、“Why equality?”（何故平等か？）よりも“Equality of what？”（平等とは何か？）と、「平等」を哲学する内容となっており、「選択できる自由」の問題について、深く検討している。20年以上前の本ですが、Capability（潜在能力）を、何でもって計測するか（所得とか、機能とか、効用とかetc.）について考える際にも有用。