Wellbeing, Freedom and Social Justice The Capability Approach Re-Examined, 2017a

28 Wellbeing, Freedom and Social Justice
prescriptive — it entails a moral norm that tells us what we ought to do. 13
Evaluative analyses and prescriptive analyses are closely intertwined,
and often we first conduct an evaluative analysis, which is followed by
a prescriptive analysis, e.g. by policy recommendations, as is done, for
example, in the evaluative analysis of India’s development conducted
by Jean Drèze and Amartya Sen (2013). However, one could also make
an evaluative analysis while leaving the prescriptive analysis for
someone else to make, perhaps leaving it to the agents who need to
make the change themselves. For example, one can use the capability
approach to make an evaluation or assessment of inequalities between
men and women, without drawing prescriptive conclusions (Robeyns
2003, 2006a). Or one can make a prescriptive analysis that is not based
on an evaluation, because it is based on universal moral rules. Examples
are the capability theories of justice by Nussbaum (2000; 2006b) and
Claassen (2016).
The difference with the dominant terminology used by economists
(and other social scientists) is that they only distinguish between two
types of analysis: ‘positive’ versus ‘normative’ economics, whereby
‘positive’ economics is seen as relying only on ‘facts’, whereas ‘normative
economics’ also relies on values (e.g. Reiss 2013, 3). Hence economists
do not distinguish between what philosophers call ‘evaluative analysis’
and ‘normative analysis’ but rather lump them both together under
the heading ‘normative analysis’. The main take-home message is that
the capability approach is used predominantly in the field of ethical
analysis (philosophers’ terminology) or normative analysis (economists’
terminology), somewhat less often in the fields of descriptive analysis
and conceptual analysis, and least in the field of explanatory analysis.
We will revisit this in section 3.10, where we address whether the
capability approach can be an explanatory theory.
13 Alkire (2008) calls these normative applications “prospective analysis”, and argues
that we need to distinguish the evaluative applications of the capability approach
from the “prospective applications” of the capability approach. I agree, but since we
should avoid introducing new terms when the terms needed are already available,
it would be better to use the term ‘prescriptive applications’ or, as philosophers do,
‘normative analysis’, rather than introducing ‘prospective applications’ as a new
term.