Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny

Sen, Amartya

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0713999381 ISBN 13: 9780713999389

Casa editrice: Allen Lane, 2006

In this brilliant short book, Amartya Sen argues that most of the conflicts in the contemporary world arise from individuals' notions of who they are, and which groups they belong to - local, national, religious - which define themselves in opposition to others. Our identification with these groups determines, for example, which side we belong to in a war, and whether we are an object of hatred by others or a member of a privileged caste.

If we are to overcome and resolve conflicts in our increasingly globalised world, we need to recognise that we all have multiple identities and that we share most of those identities with others than our differences make us distinct from them.

L'autore:

Amartya Sen is one of the world's leading public intellectuals. He is Professor of Economics and Professor of Philosophy at Harvard. He was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, from 1998 to 2004, and won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1998. His many celebrated books include Development as Freedom (1999), The Argumentative Indian (2005) and The Idea of Justice (2010). They have been translated into more than 30 languages.