Rationality and Freedom

Rationality and freedom are among the most profound and contentious concepts in philosophy and the social sciences. In two volumes on rationality, freedom, and justice, the distinguished economist and philosopher Amartya Sen brings clarity and insight to these difficult issues. This volume--the first of the two--is principally concerned with rationality and freedom.

Sen scrutinizes and departs from the standard criteria of rationality, and shows how it can be seen in terms of subjecting one's values as well as choices to the demands of reason and critical scrutiny. This capacious approach is utilized to illuminate the demands of rationality in individual choice (including decisions under uncertainty) as well as social choice (including cost benefit analysis and environmental assessment).

Identifying a reciprocity in the relationship between rationality and freedom, Sen argues that freedom cannot be assessed independently of a person's reasoned preferences and valuations, just as rationality, in turn, requires freedom of thought. Sen uses the discipline of social choice theory (a subject he has helped to develop) to illuminate the demands of reason and the assessment of freedom. The latter is the subject matter of Sen's previously unpublished Arrow Lectures included here.

The essays in these volumes contribute to Sen's ongoing transformation of economic theory and social philosophy, and to our understanding of the connections among rationality, freedom, and social justice.


OTHER HARVARD BOOKS BY AMARTYA SEN
Choice, Welfare and Measurement
Inequality Reexamined
Resources, Values, and Development
Resources, Values, and Development

Rationality and Freedom

Amartya Sen
Preface
Part I General Introductions

1. Introduction: Rationality and Freedom

2. The Possibility of Social Choice

Part II Rationality: Form and Substance

3. Internal Consistency of Choice

4. Maximization and the Act of Choice

5. Goals, Commitment, and Identity

6. Rationality and Uncertainty

7. Non-Binary Choice and Preference

Part III Rationality and Social Choice

8. Rationality and Social Choice

9. Individual Preference as the Basis of Social Choice

10. Social Choice and Justice

11. Information and Invariance in Normative Choice

Part IV Liberty and Social Choice

12. Liberty and Social Choice

13. Minimal Liberty

14. Rights: Formulation and Consequences

Part V Perspectives and Policies

15. Positional Objectivity

16. On the Darwinian View of Progress

17. Markets and Freedoms

18. Environmental Evaluation and Social Choice

19. The Discipline of Cost-Benefit Analysis

Part VI Freedom and Social Choice: The Arrow Lectures Introductory Remarks

20. Opportunities and Freedoms

21. Processes, Liberty and Rights

22. Freedom and the Evaluation of Opportunity

Name Index

Subject Index