Yet kindness requires steering, and public reason provides it. Development as Freedom (1999) frames progress as expanding capabilities through open scrutiny of policies, while The Idea of Justice (2009) contends that comparative, public reasoning can reduce injustice without waiting for utopia. Reason operationalizes compassion: it tests reforms, tracks unintended effects, and invites dissent. Without it, benevolence curdles into patronizing charity; with it, empathy becomes policy. Consequently, cultures advance not by sentiment alone, but by arguments that others—especially critics—can accept. [...]
