Capabilities and Intermediate Welfare:Reflections on the Debate of Western Equality Theory
The path of resource-based equality analysis represented by John Rawls and Ronald Dwor-kin and the path of welfare-based equality analysis represented by utilitarians have been at the cen-tral position of equality theory for a long time.Amartya Sen's theory of capabilities equality provides a new thinking path for equality theory,and has aroused a lot of attention and discussion.Cohen af-firms Amartya Sen's criticism of resource equality theory and welfare equality theory,but questions the concept of capabilities and the proof of equality theory.Cohen mainly discusses the ambiguity of the theory of capabilities equality and whether capabilities cover the dimension between basic good-ness and utility.He also proposes"intermediate welfare"to replace the concept of capabilities to support his equality theory of"available benefits".In fact,Cohen misunderstands the concept of Am-artya Sen's capabilities to some extent.Amartya Sen's theory of capabilities equality can be distin-guished from what Cohen calls intermediate welfare,and Cohen's view can be rejected by careful comparison.However,this does not mean that Amartya Sen's theory of capabilities equality is entirely reasonable.In terms of listing capabilities,assessing the importance of capabilities and the feasibility of theories,Amartya Sen still needs to provide detailed explanations and arguments.
capabilitiesintermediate welfareequalityequality theory
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