Sen mentions that there are two basic views to justice - one is the ‘arrangement-focused’ approach to justice and the other is ‘realization-focused’ approach to justice. In order to contrast both the approaches, Sen uses two Sanskrit words – niti and nyaya- both these words mean justice. Although the definition of the words is similar, they represent different perceptions of justice. Niti, on one hand focuses on organized institutions and appropriate behaviors in society. Basically, we think about…

push one's point of view over that held by the other; and lastly, a 'vitandavaad', which solely seeks to raze the opposing views, while offering them no other alternative system. In that sense, the book, “The Argumentative Indian” written by Dr. Amartya Sen, the Nobel laureate has been very appropriately titled and that through this he has unwittingly revealed his own views. The way the book moves ahead, are thoughts of an argumentative individual – propagating his own views but not searching for the…

This is an immensely complex questions which deserves much more time and space than can be devoted in this essay. However I will endeavor to apply the theories of a number of authors to the problem and arrive at a reasonable conclusion based upon my analysis of them. Throughout the course of the essay I will make reference to a number of authors, writing on subjects of Ethics, Philosophy and Feminism, with the intention of attempting to divine the validity to the claim of liberalism’s universality.…

The Rise of Universal Liberal Values? Democracy is one thing, and constitutional liberalism quite another. In the inexorable march of modernity, Fareed Zakaria argues in The Rise of Illiberal Democracy, the message of constitutional liberalism has gotten lost in the clamor for democracy. This is problematic because, without a strong foundation of pluralism and constitutional liberalism, the apparatus of democracy can easily be hijacked by forces that hardly espouse the liberal values that have,…

with dissolution, unrelenting poverty, abrasive environmental factors, and lifetimes of economic uncertainty have continued to force millions of men, women, and children into impoverished refugees. Indian economist and humanitarian philosopher Amartya Sen attempts to shed light on the origins of the global hunger situation in his work Poverty and Famines, asserting that famines are caused not by the conventional belief of food shortages, but by how a community’s food is distributed. While crop scarcity…

In his article, Democracy as a Universal Value, Amartya Sen asserts that democracy is a universal value. In order to develop his argument Sen needs to state his definition of democracy and define what he means by universal value. In the course of Sen's argument he gives his view of the relationship between democracy and the economy. He then defends his view of democracy as a universal value against a main argument that deals with cultural differences between regions. Amartya Sen uses a maximum…

Mrs. Sen is a shorty story about a newly arrived woman from India named Mrs. Sen, and her relationship with the young child, Elliot, whom she babysits. Elliot comes from a rich family and has a mother who works a lot and doesn't spend much quality time with Elliot. She often leaves Elliot to be on his own when she is home. Mrs. Sen comes from a very large and traditional Indian family and struggles to get use to her new life in America. The two form a close bond throughout the story and once you…

2,500 years ago, in the city-state of Athens, Greece, democracy was born. However, ancient democracy was not suited for the vast and disparate populations that practice it today. Thus, throughout the centuries, democracy has evolved, eventually being recycled into the modern democracy that is practiced in the United States today. The term itself derives from Greek; demokratia is a combination of the Greek word for people, demos, and power, kratos. A democratic system of government is one in which…

considered stealing? This common situation allows individuals to discover if they utilize universal moral principles or morally relativistic principles. Universal moral principles, by definition, emphasize an engraved universal ethic “which applies to all people, regardless of culture, race, sex, religion, nationality, sexuality or other distinguishing feature, and all the time” (Luke Mastin, 2008). Universal moral principles exist in ideals such as self-preservation or preventing the innocent from…

Amartya Kumar Sen seeks to subvert this, arguing that since independence, there has been liberation of socioeconomic change and a distinct method of exercising the `real freedoms that women enjoy, focusing on the growth of the individual woman in comparison to placing her in a ‘repressive state.’ However, whilst Sen argues with an optimistic tone, it is important to note that the position of the woman in independent India was still a problematic topic. The portrayal of women in the Indian milieu…