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Amartya Sen

Bio: Amartya Sen is an academic researcher from Harvard University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Poverty & Human rights. The author has an hindex of 149, co-authored 689 publications receiving 141907 citations. Previous affiliations of Amartya Sen include Trinity College, Dublin & University of Chicago.


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Journal Article
Amartya Sen1
TL;DR: The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) has been able to provide support for many non-mainstream projects, which are often neglected by the more traditionalist support agencies.
Abstract: It was wonderful to attend this special event of the Harvard Forum. For those of us who do not undertake any systematic effort to keep track of the growing world of technology, coming to these forums—this is the second one here—is like attending periodic refresher courses on “what’s happening” in the use of technology, especially information technology. And all this comes effortlessly to us, as it is nicely arranged from Canada—a kind of periodic Canadian nudge to wake up sleepy Harvard academics. And for this, we have every reason to be grateful. I particularly thank the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) for supporting this event. I am also very glad that my friend, David Malone, who now heads it, is himself here—I take it that this is not merely because David wants to wake up the Harvard academics, but also because he knows that this event has a widespread world audience, which makes me rather nervous! Perhaps I should also seize this occasion to express my appreciation of the excellent, and far oung, activities of the IDRC, which I have observed and admired over the years across the world—not least in South Asia. It is particularly impressive that the IDRC has been able to provide support for many nonmainstream projects, which are often neglected by the more traditionalist support agencies. Many of these innovative ventures, which do not get the attention of the media, and which are not heralded and greeted—at least not initially—on the front pages of the newspapers, have actually ended up doing a lot of good in our badly organized world. It is not merely the size of the budget, but also the type of projects, that determine the overall effectiveness of supportive activities—and the IDRC has a record here that should surely be a reason for great pride. I know that a lot of people are particularly interested in the growing reach and impact of mobile telephones. Let me say here that this is a aeld in which much of the good work has been done by private initiatives— indeed, often enough, by simple business initiatives. This is not invariably the case with many other departures, as help from the state or the nonproat NGOs is rather necessary. Indeed, many of the supportive activities of the IDRC have been aimed at good nonproat initiatives that need support. It is interesting to ask this question: When do for-proat business initiatives work out very well—and rather automatically—for the beneat of the public at large? To give an old-fashioned answer to this question, which is not a bad starting point, for-proat initiatives can be often market-friendly when the impact on others is positive, rather than negative. A telephone owned by a person helps others to call the person up, as well as to receive calls from him or her, and so the increased freedom of the phone owner adds to the freedom of others. In contrast, a gun owned by one can easily reduce the freedom of others, if the gun is pointed at them—or could be. Many goods have little impact on others, as a shirt owned by one does not, typically, have much of an impact on the lives of others. In contrast, a phone

60 citations

Book
11 Dec 1996

60 citations

Book ChapterDOI
Amartya Sen1
01 Jan 1979
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss alternative interpretations of interpersonal comparisons and alternative formal structures of the type of comparability, which can be broadly classified into descriptive and prescriptive types.
Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter discusses alternative interpretations of interpersonal comparisons and alternative formal structures of the type of comparability. To begin with, statements on interpersonal comparisons can be broadly classified into descriptive and prescriptive types. Several descriptive interpretations of interpersonal comparisons are possible and these different interpretations must also be distinguished from each other. At least three distinct descriptive interpretations can be distinguished, based respectively on behaviorism, introspective welfare comparison, and introspective as if choice. Also another way to interpret the above mentioned interpersonal comparisons is the normative interpretation method, as proposed by Robbins (1935). It is worth noting that any normative interpretation is entirely relative to the maximand chosen. In utilitarianism, being concerned with maximizing the sum of individual welfares, comparison of units is crucial and that of levels irrelevant. On the other hand, criteria of equity use a comparison of levels of welfare and sometimes ignore comparison of units. The central problem in the theory of interpersonal comparisons of welfare seems to be the embarrassment of riches observed in comparative analysis—there are many reasonable ways of making such comparisons, and they need not coincide. In addition to this problem of interpretation and procedure, there is also the question of the type of comparability to be used.

59 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In the Epistle to Peter Antony Motteux, Dryden wrote, "Words, once my stock, are wanting to commend/So great a poet and so good a friend".
Abstract: John Dryden wrote in 1698, in the Epistle to Peter Antony Motteux, “Words, once my stock, are wanting to commend/So great a poet and so good a friend.” It is not easy to talk about a close friend, ...

59 citations


Cited by
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TL;DR: This review considers research from both perspectives concerning the nature of well-being, its antecedents, and its stability across time and culture.
Abstract: ▪ Abstract Well-being is a complex construct that concerns optimal experience and functioning. Current research on well-being has been derived from two general perspectives: the hedonic approach, which focuses on happiness and defines well-being in terms of pleasure attainment and pain avoidance; and the eudaimonic approach, which focuses on meaning and self-realization and defines well-being in terms of the degree to which a person is fully functioning. These two views have given rise to different research foci and a body of knowledge that is in some areas divergent and in others complementary. New methodological developments concerning multilevel modeling and construct comparisons are also allowing researchers to formulate new questions for the field. This review considers research from both perspectives concerning the nature of well-being, its antecedents, and its stability across time and culture.

8,243 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH) as mentioned in this paper was created to marshal the evidence on what can be done to promote health equity and to foster a global movement to achieve it.

7,335 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
08 Aug 2002-Nature
TL;DR: A doubling in global food demand projected for the next 50 years poses huge challenges for the sustainability both of food production and of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and the services they provide to society.
Abstract: A doubling in global food demand projected for the next 50 years poses huge challenges for the sustainability both of food production and of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and the services they provide to society. Agriculturalists are the principal managers of global useable lands and will shape, perhaps irreversibly, the surface of the Earth in the coming decades. New incentives and policies for ensuring the sustainability of agriculture and ecosystem services will be crucial if we are to meet the demands of improving yields without compromising environmental integrity or public health.

6,569 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors review the observational evidence for the current accelerated expansion of the universe and present a number of dark energy models in addition to the conventional cosmological constant, paying particular attention to scalar field models such as quintessence, K-essence and tachyon.
Abstract: We review in detail a number of approaches that have been adopted to try and explain the remarkable observation of our accelerating universe. In particular we discuss the arguments for and recent progress made towards understanding the nature of dark energy. We review the observational evidence for the current accelerated expansion of the universe and present a number of dark energy models in addition to the conventional cosmological constant, paying particular attention to scalar field models such as quintessence, K-essence, tachyon, phantom and dilatonic models. The importance of cosmological scaling solutions is emphasized when studying the dynamical system of scalar fields including coupled dark energy. We study the evolution of cosmological perturbations allowing us to confront them with the observation of the Cosmic Microwave Background and Large Scale Structure and demonstrate how it is possible in principle to reconstruct the equation of state of dark energy by also using Supernovae Ia observational data. We also discuss in detail the nature of tracking solutions in cosmology, particle physics and braneworld models of dark energy, the nature of possible future singularities, the effect of higher order curvature terms to avoid a Big Rip singularity, and approaches to modifying gravity which leads to a late-time accelerated expansion without recourse to a new form of dark energy.

5,954 citations