Capabilities and Freedom. An approximation to Amartya Sen’s theory

Abstract

This paper explains Amartya Sen's capabilities approach as a way of unifying most of his social philosophy. Capabilites are defined as the opportunities to enjoy several ways of life, and they provide the notion of aggregate welfare used in Human Development Reports of the United Nations Development Programme. Besides, capabilities approach provides a theory of liberty that I have called freedom as capability. In this way, Sen's researches on famines and development, social choice and rights converge in a notion of freedom which is consistent with cultural differences. This concept is nor the liberal one neither the liberty as non-domination of republicanism, and Sen makes use of it in his defence of social welfare policies.