很喜欢访谈中的一句话：当你有改变现状的能力时，你有义务去想你应该做些什么（Whenever you have the power to make a difference, you have an obligation to think what you ought to do）。很多时候，我们畏惧谈及所被赋予的“权力”，因为潜意识中，那总和oppression有着某种亲缘关系。但是，一旦获得了权力，就真的有义务去思考某种能够让社会前进的方法，哪怕自己的影响力再小，哪怕自己与任何人一样都具有无限的局限性。这世界不会因你一个人说什么而翻天覆地，但至少，路边那朵不起眼的小花，能够因你的呵护而开得更灿烂。也许，这也就是我此刻对于自我定位的理解。
其实，任何的人，都可以做一个尽责的公民，只不过是我们愿不愿意而已。毕竟，社会有太多的不平等，而我们虽然会自认为“不平等”的受害方，但遥想那不远处没钱吃饭的一个孩子，我们真不能做些什么? 期待政府来喂饱他，有何异于涸辙枯鱼?
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Affable and engaging, he added that the best thing Singapore can do to bolster its future is to ask: 'What can we do here which would be better for Singapore?'
Indeed, he was certain that Singaporeans could play 'a very important part' in global public reasoning, by which he meant fostering open dialogue 'to lead the world to a more safe and just place'.
Public reasoning is, in fact, at the core of the book he is writing now. Titled The Idea Of Justice, it examines how to get everyone to behave reasonably and make a difference to others 'without bringing in the obligation of power'.
He does so by rejecting the centuries- old social contract theory, which he finds limiting because it frames one's obligations as being conditional upon others fulfilling theirs. But, he demanded, how does one explain the many other crucial moral duties, such as that of a mother towards her children? 'There are duties you have to do no matter what is being done to you. But whenever you have the power to make a difference, you have an obligation to think what you ought to do.'
His other quarrel with the social contract theory is that it aims for a perfect state which, again, he found unrealistic. 'You have to judge things in a different way. (You have to ask:) 'Is it more just than that?' Whereas the contract approach is to say: 'Is it perfectly just?''
Prof Sen wants to urge everyone everywhere to abandon the idea of perfect states, and focus instead on enhancing justice. And he said the current economic crisis 'is a marvellous opportunity to re-examine policies'.
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