Amartya Sen
Life
- Birth: Born on November 3, 1933 in Santiniketan, Bengal (now West Bengal, India)
- Education:
- Presidency College, Kolkata (B.A. in Economics, 1953)
- Trinity College, Cambridge (Ph.D. in Economics, 1959)
- Career:
- Professor at Jadavpur University (1956-1958)
- Professor at Delhi School of Economics (1963-1971)
- Professor at London School of Economics (1971-1977)
- Professor at Oxford University (1977-1988)
- Professor at Harvard University (1988-1998, 2004-2019)
- Master of Trinity College, Cambridge (1998-2004)
- Awards:
- Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (1998)
- Bharat Ratna (India's highest civilian honor, 1999)
People Who Influenced Their Thought
- John Rawls: Engaged critically with his theory of justice
- Adam Smith: Inspired his work on ethics and economics
- Karl Marx: Influenced his analysis of inequality
- Rabindranath Tagore: Shaped his early education at Visva-Bharati University
Main Ideas and Publications
- Collective Choice and Social Welfare: (1970) Pioneering work in social choice theory
- Poverty and Famines: (1981) Demonstrated famines occur due to distribution issues, not food shortage
- Development as Freedom: (1999) Capability approach to development
- The Idea of Justice: (2009) Critique of Rawlsian justice
- Capability Approach: Framework for evaluating well-being and development
- Social Choice Theory: Advanced Arrow's impossibility theorem
- Human Development Index: Conceptual contributor to this UN measure
Controversies around Their Main Work or Thought
- Capability Approach: Criticized for being too vague in implementation
- Western Bias: Some argue his ideas reflect Western liberal values
- Economic Methodology: Challenged by traditional welfare economists
Key People Influenced by Their Thought
- Martha Nussbaum: Collaborator on capability approach
- Thomas Piketty: Built on his inequality analysis
- Joseph Stiglitz: Applied his welfare economics
- Mahbub ul Haq: Worked with Sen on human development concept
Legacy
Amartya Sen transformed development economics and moral philosophy by introducing the capability approach, demonstrating how freedom constitutes both the means and ends of development.