New Zealand Listener

Equal in theory

Three children are fighting over a wooden flute. The first made the flute. The second is the poorest child in the village and has no other toys to play with. The last is the only child in the village who can actually play the flute. Which of them should get it?

The Parable of the Flute is a thought experiment constructed by the philosopher and Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen. He is arguably the world’s most

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