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Analysing Inequalities in Germany pp 1–4Cite as

Introduction

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Abstract

In 1750, Jean-Jacques Rousseau stated that the analysis of inequality posed not only “one of the most interesting questions that philosophy can propose” but also “one of the thorniest that philosophers can have to solve” (Rousseau 1750, p.1).

Ultimately the relevance of our ideas on this subject must be judged by their ability to relate to the economic and political preoccupations of our times.

Amartya Sen (1973)

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Notes

  1. 1.

    To a considerable extent, this work is thus motivated from political and ideological grounds. Ideological motivations have become somewhat unfashionable in economics so that the approach I take and the motivation I give are rightly to be considered contentious. However, I hope that this work underscores the belief of Oskar Lange that “[i]deological influences do not always lead to the apologetic degeneration of social science” (see Lange 1963, p.525) and that this work contributes new objective research insights despite (or even because of) the ideological components that it doubtlessly contains.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany

    Alexander Silbersdorff

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  1. Alexander Silbersdorff
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Correspondence to Alexander Silbersdorff .

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Silbersdorff, A. (2017). Introduction. In: Analysing Inequalities in Germany. SpringerBriefs in Statistics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65331-0_1

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