ŠTA MOŽEMO DA RADIMO I KAKVE ŽIVOTE MOŽEMO DA VODIMO?: BLAGOSTANJE, RAZVOJ I PRAVDA
WHAT ARE WE CAPABLE OF DOING AND WHAT KIND OF LIVES CAN WE LEAD?: WELL-BEING, DEVELOPMENT AND JUSTICE

Summary/Abstract: This paper focuses on the capability/capabilities approach as a conceptual framework for assessing human well-being and as a normative paradigm for assessing human development and social justice. The capability/capabilities approach represents an alternative and a richer view of social development; that is, a view which implies that people have the freedom to realize their potentials and lead lives that they have reason to value. Moreover, the capability/capabilities approach defends the idea that social justice requires the provision of certain valuable capabilities to all citizens at least to the level required for a dignified life. This paper pays special emphasis on one key problem which besets the capability/capabilities approach: namely, which capabilities are valuable? How should they be determined? By analyzing the “theoretical-reflective approach” and the “deliberative-democratic approach” as mutually opposed approaches to the project of determining valuable human capabilities for normative purposes, we argue that it is possible to combine these two approaches in a fruitful way.

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