https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3345733.html

I've never been hugely attracted to philosophy, not even political philosophy, and this book reminded me why not; the essential argument is that justice and fairness are crucially intertwined concepts, which I accept without feeling strongly about; and it is largely in reaction to Rawls' classic work, which I have not read and am not really persuaded to read.

There are some interesting insights. For Sen, "democracy" is not just about voting, but about having a plural political system where governments are under scrutiny (see my recent posts about Season 12 of Doctor Who). This also means that we should not get too hung up on developing perfect institutions, as the process is more important than the form of government.

Two bits did grab me. Chapter 7, "Position, Relevance and Illusion", starts with King Lear and ends with the Good Samaritan, and insists that to get a better understanding of justice (or indeed anything at all) we need to look beyond our social and cultural comfort zone and bring in insights from viewpoints that we do not ourselves know. It brief and well argued.

And the final four chapters, on Public Reasoning and Democracy, really spoke to me - a challenge to put principles into practice (including a nice section on "Wrath and Reasoning", why anger is an important part of discussions of rights), with plenty of references to India and the Middle East, and the failings of the so-called West.

So I got more out of it than I thought I would get from the opening chapters - a case where it was very much worth reading to the end. ( )

Before I bought the book I thought that some parts of it could be a difficult read for someone who is not well versed in political theory, philosophy of justice and social choice theory. Notwithstanding the potential intellectual difficulties, I could not resist the urge to read a book on such an important and fundamental concept written by a Nobel laureate in economics. Thankfully, Sen generally did not fail to amaze me with his clarity, concrete examples, breadth of references and depth of interpretations while forcing me to ask more and more sophisticated questions on the relationship between justice, democracy, absolute principles, ideals and the future of humanity. I found his examples on human-induced famines and their relationship to the lack of uncensored public reasoning especially striking. I'm not in a position to comment very much on his criticism of contractarian / transcendentalist approach but I cannot refrain from admiring his rigorous attempt at developing and defending an alternative which I found to be much more aligned with current political problems existing at various places in this world. I wish he gave more pages to the justification of human rights which seems to be a fairly difficult philosophical problem and deserves more investigation for practical purposes if for nothing else. I consider the every minute I spent on this book well worth the effort and I'll continue to explore the theory of justice with its help, further references and critical questions.
Comment ( )

But democracy must also be seen more generally in terms of the capacity to enrich reasoned engagement through enhancing informational availability and the feasibility of interactive discussions. Aaaah, Typical Harvard University Press Language.

So can you add something new about a topic which is as basic as this and has been expounded since man evolved from apes? Well, according to Amartya Sen, you can. By the time I managed to digest the blurb, my high IQ toleration reached its limit and my head required immediate resuscitation in the form of some lighter and shorter sentences which do not require to be dissected and a re-read of the whole paragraph to understand.

A great book to own and show off. If you are seen with this book open at some middle page, any approaching disturbance will immediately rethink its strategy and panic.

There are 170 members for this book. Am I to understand that all of them have finished and digested the book completely. I couldn't manage getting past the preface.

“…The Idea of Justice is a magical book, not just because of the unbelievable depth and breadth of everything Amartya Sen has read, but also because of his generosity of spirit. He argues with people at their absolute best, expressing their ideas often better than they had formed them themselves…” (Reviewed by James Purnell at www.fivebooks.com)



The full interview is available here: http://fivebooks.com/interviews/james-purnell-on-power-and-ideas ( )