An amazingly well thought-out treatment of economic development, its goals, its impact on people, and how those people (i.e. the human capital) feeds back into economic development. Sen is careful and thoughtful--and undogmatic--in establishing a framework by which we can enhance the freedom of individuals as well as grow economies. ( )

Amartya Sen contesta preguntas referentes a la relación entre riqueza y capacidad de vivir, prosperidad y libertad. ( )

The book is written in 1999, so some data and examples are outdated. The impact of the book is slightly dampened by the fact that his ideas have become less controversial than they were in 1999, and are more or less incorporated in the mainstream now.

I'm not convinced by some of his points that trend a little into political theory (he paints broad strokes over libertarianism, utilitarianism and Rawlsism), in particular I find his delinking of rights with corresponding duties more of a semantical exercise than substantive. Again, this book isn't meant to be political philosophy, so those criticisms might be nitpicky, I know he tackles alot of these issues in a fuller sense in his "Idea of Justice". I find his capabilities approach, (can also be thought of as positive rights approach) idealistic, something to aspire to, even if in some senses it's more vague to pursue.

Two points I found really fascinating was his discussion on famines and interpretations of Ken Arrow's impossibility theorem. His point that modern famines are actually due to loss of entitlements to food rather than actual fall in food output is really revolutionary, and made me think of the issue in a completely new way. I also find his interpretation of the impossibility theorem, (we don't actually need complete and transitive social preferences, an idea explored in Idea of Justice), the enlargement of the informational base as a way out of the impossibility, and partial preferences extremely original and comforting. Overall I recommend this book, it's got a ton of original ideas along with more accepted ideas and is certainly an aspirational outlook for what our society could become. ( )

這是一本能夠改變觀念的書，而非僅僅傳達知識的書，由印度學者Amartya Sen發表的Development as Freedom，認為讓人民享有基本的自由，是經濟發展的要素；更進一步衍申，經濟發展本身並非我們努力的目標，而是為了自由、人權等普世價值。 亞理斯多德曾說道：「財富並非我們追求的善，它僅止於有用、且是為了別的緣故而已」。經濟、發展、財富本身並非目的，它們的用途在於讓我們達到實質的自由，包括平等、人權、弱者得到照顧，讓每個人都有能力去作他認為有價值的事情，不受壓迫與剝削等等。Amartya Sen透過實證與人文精神，精闢地闡述自由的重要性。 這本書改變我看事情的視野，也深化我去看問題的本質，不會讓101大樓或火箭昇空去誤導我們的觀念，因為我們該評價的不是財富，而是分享、慈悲、為他人著想。（中譯本由商周出版） ( )

This book formed the inspiration for my master's thesis, and will always hold a special place in my heart. ( )