Ethical Rational Freedom

Amartya Sen' s development theory, not only inherits a tradition of the classic political economics represented by Adam Simth, John Mill and Karl Marx, but also stands for a big breakthrough from the modern mainstream economics and the main view of development. To sum up, Sen' s development theory contains three characteristics. Taking grip of the three characteristics, we can make sense of his whole development theory.To guide development with the ethical principle, is the first characteristic of Sen' s development theory. " The conscience of economics" is the personal emotion of the guide. Sen' s extraordinary academic exercises and multiple sources of his thoughts express the "heterodox" spirit. In 1998 he was awarded the Nobel Prize, which showed that economics began to attach importance to the issues of ethics and value. The economic ethical analysis is theoretic method of the guide. Because modern economics is deeply concerned with economic reason and neglects ethics, Sen hopes to restore the inheritance of motivation at the beginning of economic naissance, and bridge the economics study and human study, the engineering method and ethical method, positive analysis and normative analysis, economics and other disciplines, thereby he rebuilds the frame of economic ethical analysis. The ethical concern with development is evaluative target of the guide. He objects to the "hard" view of development, and emphasizes that the issues of development is a positive and normative one, so he implants the approach of economic ethical analysis into the study of development, and shows his ethical concern with human development.To acquire development with reason, is the second characteristic of Sen' s development theory. Sen emphasizes the rational feature of social development, so he make two "breaks" and two "critiques" . The work of "break" aims at believing in the power of reason. He breaks "the impossibility of theorem of Arrow" , and acknowledges the possibility of rational choice. He breaks the theory of unintended consequences, and acknowledges the possibility of rational expect. The work of "critique" aims at negating sufficiency of the view of reason of the modern mainstreameconomics as the rational foundation of social development. He criticizes "internal consistency of choice" view of rationality, and thinks there is no purely internal correspondence. The external correspondence must penetrate internality and makes the issue of consistency be rethought. He also criticizes the self-interest view of rationality, and thinks the maximization of one' s self-interest wasn' t the only motivation of human behavior. We are surely influenced by some non-profit motivations. This is to say, the motivations of human behavior are diversified. As far as this truth is concerned, Sen seeks respectively the proof from business ethics and Smith' s studying about self-interest. On the basis of works of "breaks" and "critiques" , Sen constructs his own broad frame of rationality. He sees rationality as a discipline of "reasoned scrutiny" . Rationality can be used in many aspects and fields, and keeps a close relevance with identity and ethics.To see development as freedom, is the third characteristic of Sen' s development theory. Sen understands freedom as capability. Freedom is defined as the capabilities to lead the kind of life people would have reasons to value. Such freedom has plural faces, and is the syntheses of substantive freedom and formal freedom, positive freedom and negative freedom, and opportunity aspect and process aspect as well. The most valuable innate character of person is freedom. Person has two esses ( well-being and agency), which make the person have two kinds of freedoms, namely, "well-being freedom" and "agency freedom" . Freedom is common value of the different cultures. "Western values" and "Asian values" both exaggerate the difference and dichotomy between Asian and European culture through the "cultural boundary" view and "cultural disharmony" view. Different cultures can completely share values of freedom, tolerance and democracy. Deprivation belongs to the category of "unfreedom" . With the view of capability, Sen defines deprivation as the failure of basic capabilities. Poverty, hunger, inequality and social exclusion are main forms of deprivation confronted by people in the contemporary world. The capability approach with which Sen comprehends freedom and deprivation is outstandingly broad and sensitive. It emphasizes inclusive information synthesis, diverse valuative rankingand broad consequential evaluation, so it can concern sufficiently with a series of and important factors which are neglected by other valuative motivations (such as the utility interest of utilitarianism, John Rawls' priority of liberty and Robert Nozick' s libertarianism) in one or other way.From the view of freedom, Sen rebuilds "human development approach" . He first brings forward his freedom view of development. Development is the process of expanding human freedom, and freedom is both the primary ends and the principal means of development. Moreover, the freedom view of development is consistent with sustainable development which pursues sustainable freedoms. On the basis of the freedom view of development , Sen criticizes two kinds of development view, one is the opulence view of development represented by modern mainstream economics, which persists in the material prosperity and neglects benefits of the deprived crowd, and the other is basic needs view of development represented by Paul Streeten , which pays more attention to the lowest life needs. To sum up, Sen' s "human development approach" includes three basic principles: the person-based, agency and universalism principles. Furthermore, Sen emphasizes contemporary human development can't escape from the diverse institutions. Our social opportunities and the prospect of development decisively depend on all kinds of institutions (such as market mechanism, democracy institution and social security) and their synthetic functions. Development also can' t escape from the context of globalization. We must treat rightly the local and the global, moreover, reply reasonably the challenge of west civilization and pursue a kind of global justice with integrating diverse powers.Sen' s development theory has enlighteningly exerted the importance influence to contemporary human development. Despite he and Karl Marx stand in different ages, he inherits some basic theoretic spirits of Marx. His analyses about Chinese development achievements and future challenges are good enough to inspire our concerns. In addition, his emphases on ethical dimension of development, capability building and sustainability, are full of guiding value for contemporary development practice.To sum up, Sen' s development theory gives out a kind of idea, a kind...