DOI: 10.36347/sjahss.2019.v07i08.013

Pages: 615-619

The theory of capability approach formulated by the Indian economist Amartya Sen offers interesting insights into the concept of development, also understood in an educational sense. In particular, this theory helps to reflect on who is the subject of development, which Sen defines as ‘person’, and what is ‘development’, which Sen connects to the idea of freedom. This short essay intends to focus on this idea of person and the idea of development related to it, underlining the differences that these concepts present with respect to the pedagogical tradition of Western culture, no longer valid in the complex contemporary democratic societies.