A Comment On Amartya Sen's Philosophy Of Freedom

Amartya Sen's philosophy of Positive Freedom based on capability is a latest development of today's western new-liberalism as it had been in difficult positions since the late 20century.With the inheritance of Aristotle,Marx,T.H.Green Positive Freedom traditions, Amartya Sen indicates the limitation of the Right new-liberalism and the Left, intending to seek a new way for the development of new-liberalism by remolding itself through the way of combining Positive Freedom with Negative Freedom.In a critical view of new-liberalism, Amartya Sen's Positive Freedom is commented from the perspective of theoretical background, historical origins, theoretical substance, methodological base, theoretical contribution and limitation.It holds that, Amartya Sen's Positive Freedom is a Positive Freedom based on Negative Freedom in its theoretical substance by laying stress on the capability and rights. It substitutes"Positive state""for"minimum state"in the realistic politics for the sake of upholding freedom and development. And it maintains the value favor of equality prior to rights, praising highly of Positive Freedom.Amartya Sen's effort to combine Negative Freedom with Positive Freedom brings the new-liberalism a new look, revealing the liberalism's strong flexibility and trimming ability since it alternates itself from radicalism to conservatism, and finally goes to the trend of combination. But it still has some limitation in theory.