The Quality of life

Author(s)

Bibliographic Information

The Quality of life

edited by Martha Nussbaum and Amartya Sen

Clarendon Press, 1993

  • : pbk

Available at  / 163 libraries

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Note

"A study prepared for the World Institute for Development Economics Research (WIDER) of the United Nations University."--T.p.

Papers presented at a conference sponsored by the World Institute for Development Economics Research in Helsinki, July 1988

Includes bibliographical references and indexes

Description and Table of Contents

Description

This book addresses issues of defining and measuring the quality of life. Recent developments in the philosophical definition of well-being are discussed and linked to practical issues such as the delivery of health care, and the assessment of women's quality of life. Leading philosophers and economists have contributed to this volume to consider the problems the subject raises. Economists work with a crude measure per capita income as indicative of human welfare and the notion of maximizing an individual's utility underlies much of conventional demand theory. But is utility measurable? And is utility the right thing to be measuring, when we are interested in assessing the quality of human lives? The volume reflects the growing need for interdisciplinary work as economists become more sensitive to the importance of facing fundamental philosophical questions, especially in the area of development. Philosophers are also becoming aware of the importance of linking their foundational and theoretical enquiries to an understanding of complex practical problems. This work should be of interest to economists and philosophers, as well as welfare and development economists.

Table of Contents

  • Part 1 Lives and capabilities: equality of what? - on welfare, goods and capabilities, G.A. Cohen
  • capability and well-being, Amartya Sen
  • commentators on Cohen and Sen, Christine M. Korsgaard and Wolf Gaertner
  • descriptions of inequality - the Swedish approach to welfare research, Robert Erikson
  • commentator - Bengt-Christer Ysander
  • having, loving, being - an alternative to the Swedish model of welfare research, Erik Allardt. Part 2 Traditions, relativism, and objectivity: objectivity and the science-ethics distinction, Hilary Putnam
  • commentator - Lorenz Krueger
  • objectivity and social meaning, Michael Walzer
  • commentator - Ruth Anna Putnam
  • value, desire and quality of life, Thomas Scanlon
  • commentator - Sissela Bok
  • explanation and practical reason, Charles Taylor
  • commentator - Martha Nussbaum
  • non-relative virtues - an Aristotelian approach, Martha Nussbaum
  • commentator - Susan Hurley. Part 3 Women's lives and gender justice: women and the quality of life - two norms or one?, Julia Annas
  • commentator - Margarita Valdes
  • justice, gender and international boundaries, Onoroa O'Neill
  • commentator - Martha Nussbaum. Part 4 Policy assessment and welfare economics: distributing health - the allocation of resources by an international agency, John E. Roemer
  • commentator - Paul Seabright
  • the relativity of the welfare concept, B.M.S. van Praag
  • commentator - Siddiq Osmani
  • pluralism and the standard of living, Christopher Bliss
  • commentator, Amartya Sen.

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