Autorentext

Amartya Sen is a professor of economics and philosophy at Harvard University. A former master of Trinity College, Cambridge, he won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1998. His many celebrated books include Development as Freedom and The Idea of Justice.

Klappentext

Amartya Sen, the world-renowned economist and tireless champion of the poor, is not content to rest on his laurels. Existentially concerned with the corrosion of human rights, Sen has crafted an impassioned manifesto whose ideas are vital to the flourishing of human civilization. The facts are stark: Seven hundred million people live in poverty. Fair elections are increasingly rare, with more than fifty countries suffering major democratic backsliding. Against this background of glaring injustice, Sen asks: What basic rights--freedom from hunger, illiteracy, torture, and arbitrary imprisonment--can human beings genuinely have? Sen provides answers that are both philosophically rigorous and bracingly practical, resulting in an enlightened and accessible work that guides us through the roiling waters of the twenty-first century, showing how the use of reason can mend a broken world.