Development, Common Foes and Shared Values

There is considerable common ground among various positions--involving needs, capabilities, prudential values and basic goods--in the literature about advantage and development. The well-known debate about the relative merits of various spaces relating to advantage, associated with Amartya Sen, has tended to obscure this point. Differences among the relevant positions often have to do with the context in which they are developed, or strategies involved in dealing with common foes, rather than any fundamental divergence in values. The various lists of the components of advantage that these positions offer can, to some degree, be seen as relating to different levels in our concern about the quality of life. To this degree, they can be reconciled, and Sen's capability approach simply highlights an important level. Furthermore, both differences, as well as convergence, in the various lists, may be consistent with shared values.