ABSTRACT OF PAPER
Title: The ‘just’ and the ‘good’: the Capability Approach between freedom and equality
Author: Giovanola Benedetta
The aim of this paper is to investigate the CA’s conception of justice through an interdisciplinary inquiry aimed at showing the role of ethical issues in economics. In the first part of the paper I focus on the issue of freedom and address the classical distinction between positive and negative freedom paying particular attention to its role within the CA; I thus discuss the ‘opportunity’ and ‘process’ aspect of freedom with regard to the concept of ‘capability’ and focus on the notion of capability as real freedom to achieve valuable combinations of human functionings. In the second part of the paper I tackle the issue of equality and discuss Sen’s answer to the question “Equality of what?”, by recalling his criticism of both the utilitarian focus on utility and Rawls’ overconcentration on means (such as primary goods). I then tackle the issue of the relationship between equality and freedom, trying to see whether and how it is possible to argue for an equality of capabilities or, in other terms, an “equality of substantive freedom for all” and show that these considerations have crucial implications with regard to the notion of justice and the conception of a just society. In this context I also focus on the potential conflicts between efficiency and equity reasons as a crucial problem with regard to matters of justice and the assessment of social arrangements. Finally I investigate the relationship between CA’s concept of just and good and connect its notion of justice and ‘good life’ by developing its ethical and political implications.
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