ABSTRACT
Capability as a tool will expose the difference between the master and the slave, so that there is no possibility of erasure. At the same time, capability offers the strength to create agency. There is a subtle connection between the theory of capability and that of vulnerability and resistance. Under the capability approach, individual freedom is determined by what one has reason to value; under the vulnerability approach, freedom is determined by the strength to turn that vulnerability into resistance and political power. The vulnerable condition is both an existential condition and a socially induced condition, but to invoke sympathy is detrimental. Sen, Butler, Arendt, and Anderson strive to give voice to the vulnerable. The great modern Indian philosopher Sri Aurobindo coined the philosophical term supramentai consciousness , based on Indian Vedanta philosophy.
