This is the last chapter in Development as Freedom. Next week, we will conclude the re-read with a few thoughts and chart a course for the next book. Thoughts?
As a reminder, we re-read Chapter 11, Social Choice and Individual Behavior
a few weeks ago. Current events required that we venture into that territory at that time.
The idea that I continue to return to when I contemplate Chapter 12, Individual Freedom As A Social Commitment, is that we are responsible for the consequences of our actions. Sen points out that we “cannot escape that the terrible occurrences that we see around us, are quintessentially our problems.” He continues, “As competent human beings, we can not shirk the task of judging how things are and what needs to be done.”
The second area of this Chapter is the relationship between freedom and responsibility. Responsibility requires freedom (the opposite is also true). Without freedom, a task or duty is imposed. While walking through COSTCO last week, I overheard a teenager tell their parent, “Mom, I was just doing what you told me to do.” The teenager took no responsibility for their actions because they perceived no freedom in this behavior.
Social responsibility does not replace individual responsibility. One without the other is counterproductive. For example, social responsibility that overpowers individual responsibility can lead to the loss of motivation, involvement, and self-knowledge. Responsible adults must be in charge of their own well-being. The big caveat to that statement is that it needs to be possible and practical for them to act responsibly. Social biases of all types reduce agency, ranging from implicit and explicit prejudices to the impact of nanny state boundaries. All biases generate constraints that reduce the span of control a person can exert (note: some constraints are necessary – I am not judging which are right and wrong). Sen notes that W.A. Lewis, in The Theory of Economic Growth, stated that development’s objective is to increase the “range of human choice.” We would temper that statement by adding that the consequences of those choices (and allowing the choice) must be factored into evaluating development. A quote from Aristotle put a ribbon on my re-read of this chapter and perhaps even the whole book with:
“Wealth is evidently not the good we are seeking; for it is merely useful and for the sake of something else.”
― Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics
Next week, we will wrap up our re-read and plot a course for the next few weeks.
Previous installments of Development as Freedom by Amartya Sen:
Week 1: Context and Logistics
Week 2: Introduction and Preface
Week 3: The Perspective of Freedom
Week 4: The Ends and the Means of Development
Week 5: Freedom and the Foundations of Justice
Week 6: Poverty as Capability Deprivation
Week 7: Markets, State, and Social Opportunity
Week 8: The Importance of Democracy
Week 9: Social Choice and Individual Behavior
Week 10: Famines and Other Crises
Week 11: Women’s Agency and Social Change
Week 12: Population, Food, and Freedom
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