The homely world of an oeconomist

THE Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen's Home in the World: A Memoir revives the meaning of the word "oeconomy", or the art of supervising the material and moral resources of a household to uphold good order.

Sen, who won the Nobel prize in 1998 for his contribution to welfare economics, is an oeconomist. His published works speak of a global household at war with itself because of inequality, poverty, hunger, famine and the violent pursuit of single and divisive identities. However, rational argumentativeness, development, freedom and justice inhabit the same home. As a kind of global family elder, Sen takes his side firmly on the progressive side of the human oeconomy.

A public intellectual in the global league of discipline-straddling icons such as Noam Chomsky (linguistics) and Edward Said (comparative literature), Sen weds economics to the public purpose boldly. This autobiography attests to the irreplaceable value of a passionately examined life lived in the twin pursuit of freedom and reason.