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Amartya Sen's Notion of Freedom: A Conceptual History of a Universalist Presumption

Yupanqui, Maria LU (2011) SIMT29 20111
Department of Political Science
Master of Science in Development Studies
Graduate School
Abstract (Swedish)
Amartya Sen argues that the overarching goal of development is expanding people’s choices. Yet, freedom as a goal is ambiguous as the notion is clouded by idioms of freedom dating as far back as Ancient Greece. Thus, since Sen claims to have universalist presumptions, this thesis discusses and analyzes Sen’s notion of freedom from a classical philosophical perspective – mainly drawing from Leo Strauss – in order to situate it in this ancient historical debate. For this purpose, the conceptual meaning of freedom is treated as both autonomous and mutable as it allows for a historically and philosophically sounded approach to its study. The method applied to trace the different notions of freedom is the one of conceptual history. The findings... (More)
Amartya Sen argues that the overarching goal of development is expanding people’s choices. Yet, freedom as a goal is ambiguous as the notion is clouded by idioms of freedom dating as far back as Ancient Greece. Thus, since Sen claims to have universalist presumptions, this thesis discusses and analyzes Sen’s notion of freedom from a classical philosophical perspective – mainly drawing from Leo Strauss – in order to situate it in this ancient historical debate. For this purpose, the conceptual meaning of freedom is treated as both autonomous and mutable as it allows for a historically and philosophically sounded approach to its study. The method applied to trace the different notions of freedom is the one of conceptual history. The findings indicate that Sen’s notion of freedom is formulated under MacCallum’s widely accepted meta-theory of one concept of freedom, for Sen seeks universal validation of his democratic values based on individual agency. Indeed, since freedom is the principle of democracy, Sen’s thought is rooted in a democratic tradition that advocates universal standards drawn from the classics. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Yupanqui, Maria LU
supervisor
organization
course
SIMT29 20111
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Sen, Freedom, Development, MacCullum, Democracy
language
English
id
1966976
date added to LUP
2011-07-06 08:03:53
date last changed
2014-05-27 11:09:59
@misc{1966976,
  abstract     = {{Amartya Sen argues that the overarching goal of development is expanding people’s choices. Yet, freedom as a goal is ambiguous as the notion is clouded by idioms of freedom dating as far back as Ancient Greece. Thus, since Sen claims to have universalist presumptions, this thesis discusses and analyzes Sen’s notion of freedom from a classical philosophical perspective – mainly drawing from Leo Strauss – in order to situate it in this ancient historical debate. For this purpose, the conceptual meaning of freedom is treated as both autonomous and mutable as it allows for a historically and philosophically sounded approach to its study. The method applied to trace the different notions of freedom is the one of conceptual history. The findings indicate that Sen’s notion of freedom is formulated under MacCallum’s widely accepted meta-theory of one concept of freedom, for Sen seeks universal validation of his democratic values based on individual agency. Indeed, since freedom is the principle of democracy, Sen’s thought is rooted in a democratic tradition that advocates universal standards drawn from the classics.}},
  author       = {{Yupanqui, Maria}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Amartya Sen's Notion of Freedom: A Conceptual History of a Universalist Presumption}},
  year         = {{2011}},
}