A Reading of Amartya Sen’s The Idea of Justice

Abstract

Amartya Sen proposes that an individual's focus on a particular kind of justice must start from the limits of his or her capability, which is no more than a perspective on theories of justice, and which clashes with elements that do not derive from the individual's characteristics. The focus on one form of equality, in whatever field, does not mean ascribing significance to the principle of equality in all its other forms. The real crucial question remains what is equality? And do we need equality in such-and-such a field?