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haaris's review against another edition
5.0
I am going to make an exception with my rating rule. I typically only give five stars to a book I think everyone should read. I cannot truly say this book is for everyone: it is brilliant and it is incredibly profound but it is also technical and dense. But to give the book any less than 5 stars would be heresy.
Collective Choice and Social Welfare was originally published in 1970 and synthesized Amartya Sen's work in the field of social choice theory, taking its point of departure Kenneth Arrow's famous Impossibility Theorem, but moving well beyond. The original book had a beautiful stylistic experiment: each topic is covered in two chapters. There is an exposition chapter that assimilates the essence of the argument and presents an intuitive narrative to the reader. Followed by its corresponding mathematical counterpart.
Somewhat Technical
Social choice theory is considered a heavily technical field: it is often presented as a part of "mathematical economics." And so, each technical chapter in the book presents results that, among other things, (1) investigate the nature of the axioms behind Arrow's famous result, pointing out their non-basic nature, also understanding the boundaries and contours of the result; (2) compare the requirements of Pareto optimality with classical Liberty; (3) argue for the the possibility and appeal of partial comparability between individual values; (4) investigate theories of justice; (5) look at theories of voting.
All of the above was already present in the 1970 edition. Indeed, the book sparked off entire bodies of research in various domains and laid the foundations for welfare economics. It is also an important reason why Sen won the Nobel Prize in Economics.
It took me a lot of time to complete the original edition. The proofs were often involved and there were a plethora of concepts squeezed into every chapter. But I would hasten to add and, perhaps, hazard to claim, that it was all well worth the effort.
The original book would have been, by itself, a crowning achievement for any formidable intellect. Sen has written another 300 pages in this 2017 edition. The canvas has subtly changed. He assimilates progress in social choice theory for the reader in the 40+ years between the two editions. He provides a scathing critique of rational choice theory and its need for internal consistency of choice. He spends a fair bit of time evaluating various theories of justice. What's remarkable is that his theory flows from his formal mathematical work in social choice and also incorporates the thoughts of an incredible array of philosophers and thinkers even while adding his own originality, for example, in terms of the need for a focus on capabilities, on reasoned discussion, and on the willingness to accept improvements rather than an endless -- possibly impossible -- search for perfection.
There is far too much for me to write about and, to be perfectly honest, I will probably take a long time to absorb the arguments Sen has made in this wonderful book. It represents a large part of his life's work and there is much to learn. And so much more to admire.
Collective Choice and Social Welfare was originally published in 1970 and synthesized Amartya Sen's work in the field of social choice theory, taking its point of departure Kenneth Arrow's famous Impossibility Theorem, but moving well beyond. The original book had a beautiful stylistic experiment: each topic is covered in two chapters. There is an exposition chapter that assimilates the essence of the argument and presents an intuitive narrative to the reader. Followed by its corresponding mathematical counterpart.
Somewhat Technical
Social choice theory is considered a heavily technical field: it is often presented as a part of "mathematical economics." And so, each technical chapter in the book presents results that, among other things, (1) investigate the nature of the axioms behind Arrow's famous result, pointing out their non-basic nature, also understanding the boundaries and contours of the result; (2) compare the requirements of Pareto optimality with classical Liberty; (3) argue for the the possibility and appeal of partial comparability between individual values; (4) investigate theories of justice; (5) look at theories of voting.
All of the above was already present in the 1970 edition. Indeed, the book sparked off entire bodies of research in various domains and laid the foundations for welfare economics. It is also an important reason why Sen won the Nobel Prize in Economics.
It took me a lot of time to complete the original edition. The proofs were often involved and there were a plethora of concepts squeezed into every chapter. But I would hasten to add and, perhaps, hazard to claim, that it was all well worth the effort.
The original book would have been, by itself, a crowning achievement for any formidable intellect. Sen has written another 300 pages in this 2017 edition. The canvas has subtly changed. He assimilates progress in social choice theory for the reader in the 40+ years between the two editions. He provides a scathing critique of rational choice theory and its need for internal consistency of choice. He spends a fair bit of time evaluating various theories of justice. What's remarkable is that his theory flows from his formal mathematical work in social choice and also incorporates the thoughts of an incredible array of philosophers and thinkers even while adding his own originality, for example, in terms of the need for a focus on capabilities, on reasoned discussion, and on the willingness to accept improvements rather than an endless -- possibly impossible -- search for perfection.
There is far too much for me to write about and, to be perfectly honest, I will probably take a long time to absorb the arguments Sen has made in this wonderful book. It represents a large part of his life's work and there is much to learn. And so much more to admire.
inept_scholar's review
3.0
A book that I read most insincerely. Maybe I shall come back to it another time.
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