Most theorists swear by the 'social contract theory' advocated by thinkers like Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Jean Jacques Rousseau and John Rawls. Social contract, according to Rousseau, is a societal set-up that is controlled by the 'general will' of the people.

Sen's analysis of justice, on the other hand, advances the other theory of 'reducing injustice in this world', forwarded by thinkers like Karl Marx, John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham.

Sen argues that the 'ability of reasoning' plays an important role in making societies less unjust.

He says reasoning about justice throws up choices between alternative assessments of what is reasonable. Far from rejecting such pluralities or trying to reduce them beyond the limits of reasoning, we should use them to construct a theory that can absorb divergent views.

Sen illustrates the divergent views of justice with the example of three children and a flute.

Anna, Bob and Carla fight over a flute. Anna claims that she should get the flute that is lying on the ground because she knows how to play it, Bob says he should get it because he is poor and has no toys of his own, and Carla says she should get the flute because she made it. Theorists of diverging schools of justice would have different views, Sen writes.

The economic egalitarian -- who is committed to reducing social gaps -- might feel that Bob should get the flute because he is poor; the libertarian would say that Carla should get the flute because she has made it; while the utilitarian hedonist may feel that Anne's pleasure would be greatest because she can play the flute.

Sen feels one cannot brush aside these divergent foundations of thought. 'I want to draw attention to the fairly obvious fact that the differences between the three children's justificatory arguments do not represent divergences about what constitutes individual advantage, but about the principles that should govern allocation of resources in general. They are about how social arrangements should be made and what social institutions must be chosen, and through that, what social realisations must come about.'

It is not that the needs of the three children differ, but the three arguments on why they need the flute point to a 'different type of impartial and non-arbitrary reason'. They could be used to address the disparities for an accomplishment-based understanding of justice, says Sen.

The book is divided into four segments - The Demands of Justice, Forms of Reasoning, Materials of Justice and Public Reasoning and Democracy.

The breadth of Sen's vision and intellectual acuity make the book a must-read for every thinking person.

(Madhusree Chatterjee can be contacted at madhu.c@ians.in)