Frases de Amartya Sen

„"La libertad de llevar diferentes tipos de vida se refleja en el conjunto de las combinaciones alternativas de funcionamientos entre los cuales una persona puede elegir, ésta puede ser definida como la "capacidad" de una persona. La capacidad de una persona depende de una variedad de factores, incluidas sus características personales y varios aspectos de la organización social. Un compromiso social para la libertad del individuo debe implicar que se de importancia al objetivo de aumentar la capacidad que diferentes personas poseen efectivamente y la elección entre diferentes sistemas de organización social debe responder a su aptitud para promover las capacidades humanas. Una comprensión auténtica de la libertad individual debe ir más allá de las capacidades relacionadas con la vida privada, y debe prestar atención a otros objetivos de la persona, como ciertos fines sociales no relacionados directamente con la vida del individuo, aumentar las capacidades humanas debe constituir una parte importante de la promoción de la libertad individual.“

—  Amartya Sen

Fuente: Amartya Sen: "La libertad individual como compromiso social". Ediciones Abya-Yala. ISBN 9978-04-576-7, Capítulo 1.5, pág. 52.

„Hay musulmanes de todo tipo. La idea de encuadrarlos a todos en una sola identidad es errónea.“

—  Amartya Sen

„El intercambio entre culturas diferentes no puede ser visto como una amenaza, cuando es algo amigable. Pero creo que la insatisfacción con la arquitectura general a menudo depende de la calidad del liderazgo.“

—  Amartya Sen

Fuente: Entrevista realizada por Mario Baudino, Amartya Sen: "Think a West tolerant intolerance against Muslims is wrong and dangerous,", La Stampa, 30 de enero de 2003

„Aunque el capitalismo es, en principio, fuertemente individualista, ha contribuido en la práctica a reforzar la tendencia a la integración, ya que ha hecho nuestras vidas cada vez más interdependientes. Por otra parte, el bienestar económico sin precedentes que ha producido en las economías modernas hizo que pudieran aceptarse obligaciones sociales que anteriormente nadie hubiera podido "permitirse.“

—  Amartya Sen

Fuente: Obra citada, Cap. 2.5, pág. 72.

„[La globalización] ha enriquecido el mundo en sentido científico y cultural, y también ha beneficiado económicamente a muchas personas.“

—  Amartya Sen

„Aunque las economías socialistas, entre ellas las dirigidas por partidos comunistas en varias partes del mundo, han sido afectadas por los problemas económicos y políticos (incluyendo la opresión), las metas y los objetivos que previamente han atraído a la gente hacia el socialismo siguen siendo todavía importantes como lo eran hace cincuenta años. Los conceptos de justicia social también están constantemente renaciendo después de haber sido debilitados por las dificultades encontradas en la ejecución de diversos proyectos.“

—  Amartya Sen

Fuente: Obra citada, Cap. 2.5, pág. 71.

„De hecho, en la terrible historia de las hambrunas mundiales es difícil encontrar un caso en el que haya habido hambruna en un país con una prensa libre y una oposición activa dentro de un marco institucional democrático. […] La libertad negativa de la prensa y los partidos de la oposición para criticar, escribir y organizar la protesta puede ser muy eficaz en la protección de la libertad positiva elemental de la población más vulnerable.“

—  Amartya Sen

Fuente: Amartya Sen: "La libertad individual como compromiso social". Ediciones Abya-Yala. ISBN 9978-04-576-7, Capítulo 1.3, pág. 45)

„… cuando se trata de determinar cómo puede avanzar la justicia, hay una necesidad básica de razonamiento público, que involucra argumentos procedentes de diferentes sectores y de puntos de vista divergentes. Un compromiso con los argumentos contrarios no implica, sin embargo, que debamos esperar ser capaces de resolver los motivos de conflicto en todos los casos y llegar a una posición consensuada en todas las cuestiones.“

—  Amartya Sen

Fuente: Amartya Sen: "La idea de justicia". Editorial Taurus, ISBN 978-84-306-0686-3, Página 392.

„A society can be Pareto optimal and still perfectly disgusting.“

—  Amartya Sen

„If a theory of justice is to guide reasoned choice of policies, strategies or institutions, then the identification of fully just social arrangements is neither necessary nor sufficient.“

—  Amartya Sen, libro The Idea of Justice

Fuente: The Idea of Justice

„the identity of an individual is essentially a function of her choices, rather than the discovery of an immutable attribute“

—  Amartya Sen

Fuente: The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity

„While I am interested both in economics and in philosophy, the union of my interests in the two fields far exceeds their intersection“

—  Amartya Sen

„A defeated argument that refuses to be obliterated can remain very alive.“

—  Amartya Sen

„Central to the Smithian approach is our willingness to see critically what we observe around us. The sense of comfort that is often associated with being content with the world as it is can seriously hamper the pursuit of justice. This understanding goes strongly against a line of thought that was powerfully presented by Friedrich Nietzshe. ‘The Christian resolve to find the world ugly and bad has made the world ugly and bad’, said Nietzshe. I think I can, with some effort, understand what Nietzsche meant, but it is hard for me, even with a lot of effort, to see that Nietzshe’s hypothesis helps us to understand the causation or resilience of the nastiness of the world in which we live. Nor, I must insist (this I do as a thoroughly unreligious person), does it offer any obvious insight into the lives and achievements of Martin Luther King, or Mother Theresa, or Desmond Tutu, who have tried to reduce injustice in the world and have done so with non-negligible success.“

—  Amartya Sen

“Values and justice”, Journal of Economic Methodology, Vol. 19, No. 2, June 2012, 101–108
2010s, “Values and Justice”, 2012

„Ken also identified the corporation, not “the market,” as the defining institution of modern economic activity, developing these and related themes both in his teaching and in such widely celebrated books as American Capitalism (1952) and The New Industrial State (1967). But his interest in these ideas persisted throughout his life. The central importance of the corporation, and the fear that government was no longer able to provide an adequate countervailing force against corporate influence exerted both legally and otherwise, was the subject of his last book, The Economics of Innocent Fraud“

—  Amartya Sen

2004
Stephen A. Marglin, Richard Parker, Amartya Sen, and Benjamin M. Friedman, “John Kenneth Galbraith”, Harvard Gazette (February 7, 2008)
2000s

„Globalization is not in itself a folly: It has enriched the world scientifically and culturally and benefited many people economically as well.“

—  Amartya Sen

Amartya Sen, "Ten theses on globalization." New Perspectives Quarterly 18.4 (2001): 9-9.
2000s

„The global reach of Smith's moral and political reasoning is quite a distinctive feature of his thought, but it is strongly supplemented by his belief that all human beings are born with similar potential and, most importantly for policymaking, that the inequalities in the world reflect socially generated, rather than natural, disparities.
There is a vision here that has a remarkably current ring. The continuing global relevance of Smith's ideas is quite astonishing, and it is a tribute to the power of his mind that this global vision is so forcefully presented by someone who, a quarter of a millennium ago, lived most of his life in considerable seclusion in a tiny coastal Scottish town. Smith's analyses and explorations are of critical importance for any society in the world in which issues of morals, politics and economics receive attention. The Theory of Moral Sentiments is a global manifesto of profound significance to the interdependent world in which we live.“

—  Amartya Sen

Amartya Sen, " The economist manifesto http://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2010/04/smith-market-essay-sentiments", New Statesman (23 April 2010)
2010s

„Ambedkar is my Father in Economics. He is true celebrated champion of the underprivileged. He deserves more than what he has achieved today. However he was highly controversial figure in his home country, though it was not the reality. His contribution in the field of economics is marvelous and will be remembered forever..!“

—  Amartya Sen

Amartya Sen, "Dr. BR Ambedkar: As an Economist." International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Invention 2.3 (2013): 24-27.
2010s

„John Kenneth Galbraith doesn't get enough praise. The Affluent Society is a great insight, and has become so much a part of our understanding of contemporary capitalism that we forget where it began. It's like reading Hamlet and deciding it's full of quotations.“

—  Amartya Sen

Amartya Sen, quoted in Jonathan Steele, " Last of the old-style liberals http://www.theguardian.com/education/2002/apr/06/socialsciences.highereducation", The Guardian (2002)
2000s