Amartya Sen And Martha Nussbaum's Capabilities Theory

Capabilities approach pioneered by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum is the theoretical framework that provides a foundation for assessing human well-being in terms of functionings and freedoms that individuals possess under certain political and social conditions. In contrast to alternative theories like utilitarianism that solely focuses on subjective phenomenon as pleasure in evaluating living standards, or commodity-focused approach that sees opulence as an objective indicator of welfare, capabilities approach is mainly concerned with choices that people can make and opportunities they are guaranteed in order to pursue their life goals. This approach addresses a number of issues within the political philosophy that are mainly practical in their essence. (1) How to combine broadness of the approach with its practical application (2)

Sen (1987, 2005) intentionally tries to keep capabilities approach broad and flexible that allows people to define the list of functionings and freedoms with regard to problems in agenda and relevant context. Whereas, Nussbaum (1997) powerfully defends the point that a basic list of capabilities should be designed and offers her list of central human capabilities. In her opinion, such list is useful in political planning since it comprises ten core capabilities that are of extreme importance to all people and serve as the basis for their further prosperity. Her list contains:

1. Life. The ability to live a life without a threat of premature death, or a death from other artificial reasons that could be