Economics Rationality in the World of Amartya Sen

Abstract

Amartya Sen, recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in economics, is renowned for his seminal contribution in the area of ​​development. He is the originator of the Human Development Index, a new policy device now adopted worldwide as a more adequate measure of the quality of development. What is rarely known is that his ideas are expounded as part of his dialogue with moral philosophy and epistemology. At the heart of this dialogue is his trenchant critique of the notion of rationality. By examining Sen's critique of the notion of rationality, this article suggests that the conception of rationality proposed by Sen stands as an entry point for broadening the notion of rationality rather than an alternative to it