ABSTRACT
Martha Nussbaum’s extension of Amartya Sen’s capabilities approach, Richard Arneson argues, is of “paramount importance” because it clarifies the character of the ideal of social justice that is implicit in Sen’s approach (see Arneson 2000, this volume). And that character, Arneson argues, is sufficientarian. The basic tendency of the capabilities approach – a tendency made explicit in Nussbaum’s extension – is to require that egalitarians must privilege above all other concerns the goal of guaranteeing to all persons the capability to realize a “good enough” level of all essential functionings. Acceptance of a capabilities account of egalitarian concerns would therefore require that egalitarians must focus their attention almost exclusively on the circumstances of persons whose conditions fall below the stated thresholds of functionings.
