On Amartya Sen's Freedom Thoughts

Amartya Sen is the 1998 Nobel economic prize winner, he won the award due to the academic achievement in the domain of the economics of welfare. He paid much attention to the social choice, the distribution and the poor question, these question's study was the concrete domains which he won the award. The social choice theory provides the most general essential method for other domain's research. Sen has solved the Arrow's impossibility theorem under the freedom's new definition, namely to think that freedom is the capability, but is not the freedom right or the freedom will. Giving freedom this new definition is an innovation, which also provides possibility for interpersonal comparisons, supplies the basis for solving Arrow's impossibility theorem and takes new hope to the economics of welfare.Sen have criticized the utilitarianism , Rowls and Nozick's thoughts, said all of them were lack of enough informational basis to appraise one's actual freedom correctly. If we really want to promote one's actual freedom, we have to enlarge the basis of freedom which would contains all the basic information about freedom. There is no enough informational basis, someone's some freedom will be neglected. So, to look freedom as capability can cover last three theories's insufficient. Sen proposed that one's actual freedom is the capability to enjoy the life and the things that are worth purchasing and possessing, the actual freedom is the capability to exempt from the poverty-stricken, such as hunger, the malnutrition, the avoidable disease, premature death etc., to read and count, to enjoys the political participation and so on. Capability-freedom thoughts not only provides the appraised standarted for the extent of freedom reached, but also supplies a new referenced index for human-being's development. So at the same time Sen indicated that the freedom was the goal and the way of the human development. Freedom is the capability, so capability is the goal and the way of the human development.Hayek is also a great economist. He has his own special opinion about freedom. But he is different from Sen and he is an individual liberalism. He indicates that the individual freedom is the most important, and the country, the society, the law, the economy and so on which appear in a spontaneous order and all build on the basis of it. He denies the effect of rationality, and indicates that if rationality can predict tomorrow correctly, there is no need to do anything just to wait for the things to occur. He opposes to intervene the market in any way, opposes the economics of welfare policy. He claimes that free competion and the gap between rich and poor are neccessary, for them are the power of the progress and civilization. If the individual freedom can be guaranteed, all that looked unfair phenomenons are fair and reasonable. Sen is a political liberalism, and he doesn't care the source of the individual freedom. He adimits that the freedom is the aim of the development, and we must gain the actual freedom. But individual freedom only can be gained in the society, for we cann't live beyond the society, and he pointes out that the unfreedom phenomenon's existence is just because the capability is insufficient, which are influenced by the national politics, the economy, the social opportunity, the guaranteed transparency and the social security system. Therefore, if we want to realize individual freedom, we must take the route which individual and the society coordinates, seek the society's promotion and safeguard, advance five tool freedoms' realization positively. Sen's actual freedom and tool freedom thoughts are profound and rich inspiration.