**6. Conclusion**

This chapter has examined Amartya Sen's version of the capabilities approach from the standpoint of the concept of happiness. Sen's views on this subject have sometimes been misunderstood. Contrary to the view of some commentators. Sen does not follow Aristotle by embracing ethical eudaimonism, with its objectivist understanding of what true happiness involves. On the contrary, Sen agrees with those who maintain that happiness is nothing more than a subjective, psychological state. I have argued that despite its evident strengths in other areas, and because of its endorsement of the notion of subjective happiness, Sen's capabilities approach is open to criticism from an Aristotelian point of view. Sen does not take seriously enough the possibility that there may be such a thing as objective happiness. His unwillingness to accept that the concept of happiness might be understood in this eudaimonistic way is a weakness in his thinking.

*Amartya Sen and the Capabilities versus Happiness Debate: An Aristotelian Perspective DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.108512*
