Identity and commitment: Sen's conception of the individual

This paper develops a conception of personal identity for Amartya Sen's capability
framework that emphasizes his self-scrutinizing aspect of the self and related concept of
commitment, and compares this conception to the collective intentionality-based one
advanced in Davis (2003c). The paper also distinguishes personal identity and social
identity, and contrasts Sen's framework with recent standard economics¿ explanation of
social identity in terms of conformity. Sen's concept of commitment is examined in two
formulations, and the later version is related to Bernard Williams¿ thinking about
identity-conferring commitments. The paper's concludes by arguing that explaining
personal identity as a special capability and possible object of social-economic policy
provides one way of resolving the debate over whether the capability framework ought to
have a short-list of essential capabilities.