사회보장법의 철학적 기초 : 공리주의적 접근법에 대한 비판으로서 역량적 접근법

This article aims at expounding the philosophical foundations of the Capabilities Approach as a critique of the utilitarianism. As criticism of the modern social philosophy, which had been based on the anthropology stressing upon the selfishness and self-preservation as the essence of human nature, the capabilities approach attempts to reunite economics and ethics. The concern for the human development in communities naturally leads us to the rediscovery of the idea of human dignity. By the way, the overlapping relation between capabilities and human dignity hints at Kantian eleutheronomy, for the freedom in the true sense of the word is no other than an open possibility to determine one's own life on the basis of his or her free will. This article does not, however, forget to point at some weak points of the capabilities approach : that it shows somewhat passive attitude in enlisting capabilities and in presenting some objective criteria for ranking those capabilities. But this article suggests on the other hand that this passive attitude of the capabilities approach enables us to flexibly respond to different needs and circumstances when deciding social policies.