The Idea of Justice - Softcover

Sen, Amartya

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141037857 ISBN 13: 9780141037851

Publisher: Penguin, 2010

Synopsis

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's 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.

About this title

Review:

Sen is one of the great thinkers of our era ... if a public intellectual is defined by his or her capacity to bridge the worlds of pure ideas and the most far-reaching policies, Sen has few rivals --The Times, July 4th 2009, David Aaronovitch --The Times

I believe that Amartya Sen's THE IDEA OF JUSTICE is the most important contribution to the subject since John Rawls's A THEORY OF JUSTICE appeared in 1971 --Hilary Putnam,Harvard University

A Majestic Book.......Reading the Idea of Justice is like attending a masterclass in practical reasoning. --Ziauddin Sardar, The Independent

I believe that Amartya Sen's THE IDEA OF JUSTICE is the most important contribution to the subject since John Rawls's A THEORY OF JUSTICE appeared in 1971 --Hilary Putman, Harvard University

A Majestic Book.......Reading the Idea of Justice is like attending a masterclass in practical reasoning. --Ziauddin Sardar, The Independent

About the Author:

Amartya Sen is Lamont University Professor, Professor of Philosophy and Professor of Economics, at Harvard University. He won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1998 and was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, 1998-2004. His many books include Development as Freedom, Rationality and Freedom, The Argumentative Indian and Identity and Violence.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0141037857
• ISBN 13: 9780141037851
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 496