Nobel Prize-winning economist and philosopher speaks to PEP students

Posted on 16 June 2015

Amartya Sen, the world-renowned social scientist, gave the School of PEP Lecture at the York Festival of Ideas in June.

Amartya Sen is a prominent welfare economist who has made enormous contributions to the fields of social choice theory, economic and social justice, and the well-being of developing countries. In 1998, he was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. He is currently based at Harvard University, but is also a distinguished fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and an honourary fellow of Darwin College, Cambridge. Amartya has devoted his long and distinguished career to evaluating the social impact of economic policies, and has been hailed as the "conscience of his profession". His seminal work 'The Idea of Justice' was published in 2009. He has received over 90 honorary degrees from universities around the world. He is the laureate of, among many others, the Adam Smith Prize, the International Humanist Award, the National Humanities Medal, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP). In 2014, he was hailed by the New Republic as one of the top 100 thinkers who have defined our century.

On June 10, as part of the University's acclaimed Festival of Ideas, Amartya Sen gave a public lecture entitled 'What are the Demands of Democracy?'. He also held a question-and answer session with students from the School of PEP. In his speech, Professor Sen attacked the politics of austerity in Europe, branding them a violation of the demands of democracy. Following his talk, Amartya was interviewed by Bernard Ginns, Business Editor of the Yorkshire Post.