ABSTRACT
Sen (1992) suggests analysing theories of justice and the ethics of social arrangements in terms of two important aspects. The first is a criterion to be used in the ethical evaluation of social states. The second is a space to which this criterion is applied. The space we choose for assessing human well-being may be, for example, the resources, goods, commodities, liberties, rights, wealth, income or capabilities that a human being possesses. But to compare and assess these spaces, we must also possess a criterion, which enables us to go from the information concerning individual agents towards social decision rules that Sen terms as ‘social notions’ (Sen 1992: 25), ‘combining formula’ (Sen 1992: 74) or ‘rules of social judgement’ (Sen 2002: 273).
