The concept of development broadly indicates successive states of growth or advancement of any entity. Successive states of growth essentially involve the existence of a latent germ of being — a potentiality striving to realize itself. Development is thus dynamic and continuous in that it brings out the potential that is latent in an entity and involves a gradual process of change from one to another advanced state. Such a change is actuality when it is realized. The development of an entity is complete when the full potentiality of that entity is realized. The fullest or complete development is absolute development, rendered as the highest level or form of an entity. The development of a fully mature oak tree from the germ of an acorn, for example, is rendered as its absolute or highest form of development.
Of course, the concept of development is value-laden and multi-dimensional. It is of numerous sorts — human development, development of a tree, development of society, etc. The concept of human development indicates flourishment from potentiality as a human being to its actuality, whereby one stage involves the impulse of movement to the next stage. It is a continuous and dynamic process of progress. The fullest human development indicates the flourishment of human beings as an entity to the fullest sense. Alternatively saying, human development is complete when full potential is actualized. But an understanding of human beings is necessary for the understanding of human development since it is the development or flourishment of human beings.
The term ‘human being’ is scientifically called homo sapiens and technically classified as an animal — more specifically, a mammal. Philosophically, a human being is a material body and immaterial soul composite and a rational, economic, social, and political being. Alternatively saying that a human being consists of multiple dimensions such as physical, mental/emotional, rational/intellectual, economic, social, political, and spiritual. Of course, each human being has innumerable needs, desires, or preferences associated with such human dimensions, and each of the dimensions is associated with diverse special needs, desires, or preferences. Each human being has, consequently, infinite potentials to do and to be broadly in economic, social, political, and other human dimensions.
Of course, in addition to body and soul, other animals have some other dimensions including rationality, but these are in a more developed form among humans. For more developed forms of dimensions and infinite potentials to do and to be, human beings are different from others including higher-order animals such as apes. Since human beings are different from other animals including higher-order animals, their diverse human needs, desires or preferences are distinct from those of animals. Moreover, human beings are different from each other because of differences in terms of the development of diverse dimensions, differential potentials — for instance, to do politics, academic activities, business activities, religious activities, etc. and to be politicians, academicians, businessmen, spiritually developed/connected individuals, etc. — and the realization of potentials.
Human development undeniably involves the progression from one stage to another advanced state through the realization of potentials essentially with the development of all dimensions. But human beings’ needs, desires, or preferences — including hedonistic, desire-fulfilling, and higher-order subjective feeling — can make them economically, technologically, politically, socially, or spiritually either evil/animal-like or human or aligned them to either evil/animal-like or human. Human development, consequently, involves the progression from one stage to another advanced state through the realization of potentials essentially with the development of all dimensions by surmounting animality. A human being, thus, becomes the ‘self’ through the realization of all human potentials essentially with the development of all dimensions by surmounting animality to the highest possible extent.
Of course, it is not possible to realize all human potentials because of death, contradictory potentials, and other reasons, but everyone has the potential to maximize the realization of his/her potentials and become a full-fledged particularized individual essentially with the development of human dimensions and through surmounting animality. Therefore, the realization of oneself from one to another advanced state as a unified whole or the materialization of human potentials and becoming an actualized or particularized being — which is reflected through particularized identities (but one predominant identity) — through the development of all human dimensions and surmounting of animality at the best possible extent is human development — or becoming the self, or the development of the self, of a human being in the final sense.
Since a human being can particularize himself/herself with diverse identities ranging from lower to higher-order through the materialization of diverse human potentials essentially by developing all human dimensions and surmounting animality, any particularized identity (for example, ‘politician X’) — or multiple identities with one predominant identity — that is associated with one’s realization of potentials in certain human dimension(s) is also associated with disproportionate development of other human dimensions at the best possible extent. Thus, differences among human beings are, in the final sense, differences in the realization of the self as a unified whole with particularized identity — or multiple particularized identities with one predominant identity — with essential development of all human dimensions and surmounting of animality to the best possible extent.
Overall Process of Human Development
The overall human development process is both individualistic and societal. The process — which is rendered here as the staged process — consists of four stages such as consciousness, consciousness-based reasonable choices, plans and strategies for the realization of choices, and realization of conscious choices with planned actions through which human development or development of ‘the self’ of a human being occurs — or speaking, a human being becomes his/her own being. Of course, all these stages are related to each other and an individual realizes the ‘self’ as a human being from one stage to another in a step-by-step manner through inevitable interactions with overall society. In this process, consciousness is rendered as the basis— or central — upon which overall human development depends.
The concept of consciousness usually indicates the state of awareness or wakefulness of something — any physical objects, ideas, emotions, etc. It is also explained by several other concepts including perception, understanding, or knowledge of something. It changes over time. The consciousness of a human being is, more specifically, a consciousness of the self and the external world in a broad sense. The consciousness of animals, including higher-order animals, is different from that of human beings in terms of its richness, sophistication, etc. Furthermore, human beings differ from each other in the level of consciousness of the self and the outer world. If consciousness is inappropriately formed, human beings become unable to significantly differentiate between humanness and animality and development can be accordingly directed — alternatively, distorted.
Consciousness (in a broad sense), which clearly remains less emphasized in the existing understanding of human development and its process, is thus important for consciousness-based self-determined human development. Certainly, making reasonable choices — or reasonable choices to do and to be — and, subsequently, making effective plans and strategies and realization of choices through planned actions depend on an individual’s consciousness of the self and the outer world. Moreover, consciousness does not only help make choices of better living conditions but also identifies innate potentials and builds one’s potentials to be and to do as a human being. Usually, the better consciousness means the higher possibility of identifying and building one’s genuine potentials as a human being and accordingly making reasonable choices, making reasonable and effective plans and strategies, doing reasonable or right activities, and becoming the genuine self.
Of course, each stage of the process affects other stages especially subsequent stages. For example, the consciousness stage facilitates the next stage, or consciousness-based reasonable choice stage, which in turn facilitates the stage of effective plans and strategies, which in turn facilitates the realization stage. However, all stages are influenced by combined capability which consists of personal capability and societal and natural conditions. An individual’s personal capability (or capabilities) — a set of wide-ranging mental, physical and other capabilities — that is crucial for human development makes him/her ability to make resources, thoughts, ideas, and various inputs useful and convert human potentials into actuality through subsequent stages of the process, while societal conditions facilitate human development through enhancing personal capabilities and facilitating all stages of the process. Of combined capabilities, human development is primarily influenced by personal capability.
But, at each stage, some personal capabilities play central roles and others supportive/facilitative roles. Since all stages are different from each other and the needs, desires, or preferences of an individual are diverse, personal capabilities that play central roles in a stage may not play similar roles in other stage(s). For example, cognitive ability or ability to comprehend plays a crucial role in becoming conscious of something, but it may not play central roles at the realization stage especially when the aim is something other than comprehension such as becoming an athlete. In the latter case, ones’ physical fitness is the central capability even if a cognitive capability is needed to identify one’s flaws and improve these for reaching the stated goal. Yet, all personal capabilities are varyingly important for overall human development, although each personal capability plays differential roles — alternatively saying, central and supportive/facilitative.
An individual’s personal capabilities — central and supportive/facilitative — which are mainly responsible for human development or development of the ‘self’, moreover, depend on societal conditions and natural factors at varying degrees. That is, overall societal arrangements and natural factors varyingly affect human beings and their development. For example, an individual may be incapable of doing certain acts due to natural defects, while another individual may be more capable of doing certain acts due to better societal opportunities. Even if there are enormous conditional variations, human development occurs through inevitable interactions of personal capabilities, natural factors, and societal conditions, which in combination give individuals real freedom for the realization as human beings.
Of course, diverse human needs, desires, or preferences may range from the lowest (especially those aligned to minimal flourishment) to the highest order (especially those aligned to maximum flourishment). Thus, all stages of the process may usually not be strictly needed for fulfilling diverse human needs, desires, or preferences, especially which are more aligned to the lowest order but are necessary for fulfilling those more aligned to the highest order. For instance, the fulfillment of preference of a certain type of standard career requires the usage of such stages but the fulfillment of daily needs, desires, or preferences usually does not require the employment of the noted stages in a strict sense, even if these may actually be employed on many occasions of doings and beings — either knowingly or unknowingly.
Undeniably, natural factors, which are inadequately focused in the extant discourse of human development, can significantly enhance or limit one’s capability of realizing one’s fullest potentials. Some natural factors are birth, death, natural hazards, etc. Birth in a specific time and space — accompanied with societal advantages or disadvantages — that is undetermined can make one more capable or less capable. Usually, an individual born in a certain place and certain time accompanied by various favorable socio-economic and other societal conditions is more capable on diverse fronts. Moreover, early death stops one’s development potentials altogether and natural hazards can reduce one’s various capabilities or capability sets. On the contrary, long life, absence of congenital disability, etc. can provide more scope or make more capable for human development.
Overall societal conditions include political, cultural, economic, and other societal conditions — alternatively saying, real societal freedom that makes individuals really capable of developing as human beings through the noted stages. But individuals may, for the most part, be capable or incapable of becoming conscious, making conscious choices, making effective plans and strategies for performing actions, and materialization of conscious choices with actions reflecting rationality due to the presence or absence of different social circumstances such as social policies, economic sufficiency, political freedom, appropriate social norms and values, favorable environmental conditions, and so on. Furthermore, with some exceptions especially in terms of natural defects including extreme by-born mental illness and accidental deaths, individuals can be largely made capable of their development as human beings with conducive societal conditions.
Of course, some societal and natural conditions can be affected by some personal capabilities and natural and societal factors may varyingly influence each other on some occasions. But some natural factors cannot be intervened, though societal conditions can mostly be. Of societal and natural factors, personal capability can be enormously enhanced and all stages of the process can be significantly facilitated by improved societal conditions and, consequently, an individual may largely be made capable of transpiring a fully developed self with conducive societal conditions. Thus, overall societal conditions need to be given the required emphasis for improving combined capability facilitative to the realization of the self with dynamic interactions between an individual and societal conditions.
Societal Process of Human Development
Overall societal process of human development was, however, considered mainly from the perspective of economic growth for a long. Alternatively, the societal process was equivalent to interactions between humans and economic conditions. This understanding was massively considered at the end of the first half of the twentieth century. The ultimate goal of economic growth-based development was to raise income and give access to the range of goods and services, considered to be facilitative to human development. Afterward, the focus was gradually shifted to and characterized by economic, social, and political aspects, since general wellbeing was considered to be impossible without necessary social and political development. Most recently, the societal process is rendered from a broader perspective encompassing economic, social, political, environmental, and gender aspects enshrined in the global efforts for improving human wellbeing — both material and non-material.
Multi-dimensionality of the perspective, which views income as a means, gradually overcame the limitations of the economic growth-based perspective, which views income as an end-in-itself. Such a shift in discourse is of course remarkable progress in the understanding of human development and efforts to human development and is more likely to facilitate the individualistic process through the enhancement of personal capabilities that are indispensable for a human being’s doing and becoming which he/she aspires on reasonable grounds. But the extant advancement of the societal process can neither comprehensively explain nor systematically deal with the multi-dimensionality of the concept of human development. Thus, a holistic framework of the overall societal process is very important.
The following framework consists of several societal conditions such as economic, social and cultural, technological, legal and political, environmental, and religious, and/or spiritual. These broad conditions are related to and influence each other. To varying degrees, all societal conditions will enhance combined capabilities by improving personal capabilities and facilitating the societal process of becoming the ‘self’ through the staged process. Avoidance of any component and/or sub-component of the societal process framework will make the societal process incomplete and can lead to incomplete — or even distorted — human development. Consideration of all these broad societal conditions is, thus, inevitable for human development as an active agent from a comprehensive viewpoint.
Economic conditions
Economic conditions that refer to societal arrangements of economic or financial conditions for all individuals are crucial. Conducive economic conditions, or sufficient economic situations of all, improve material and non-material living conditions through increased access to various goods, services, activities, and so on — especially those which individuals have reasons to value. These enhance diverse sorts of personal capabilities and facilitate the societal process of becoming conscious, making conscious choices, making plans and strategies for the realization of conscious choices, and realizing conscious choices. But adverse economic conditions — or economic insecurity — limit capability, as it reduces options. Thus, economic conditions need to be conducive to human development. Economic conditions consist of occupational freedom, equal economic opportunity, and arrangements for income sufficiency.
The first component indicates that everyone has the right to engage or pursue a freely chosen socially acceptable occupation or profession including government jobs, business(es), and other acceptable income opportunities. Occupational freedom also requires that no one is forced to get engaged in any un-chosen profession. Equal employment opportunity — the second component — that requires business and/or trade freedom, private property rights (rights of personal and real properties including lands), creation of job opportunities, etc. is to be provided for all workable individuals — regardless of religious faith, caste, race, etc. The third component requires that no one’s income is less than sufficient amount which is subject to region-wide and person-wide variations and is more than the amount of minimum living required for meeting various subject and objective needs.
In fact, many individuals may not have actual access to different goods and services because of insufficient income. But it is vital to meet sufficient income condition, especially for those who earn less than sufficient amount and who cannot earn at all due to diverse valid reasons including sickness and a lack of job opportunities, through establishing a minimum salary scale equal to a sufficient amount, giving financial supports, or any other reasonable means. The main point here is that economic conditions must not put any unjust access barriers to goods and services, needed for upgraded living standard, improved personal capability, and increased possibility of human development.
Social and cultural conditions
Of course, social and cultural conditions are crucial for the development of individuals of all tiers. Conducive social and cultural conditions facilitate life and improve living conditions, save lives and properties, provide a scope of social connections, and bring about many other positive impacts. Consequently, facilitative social and cultural conditions can help develop diverse human dimensions including physical, mental, rational, social, and spiritual, and improve combined capabilities needed for the realization of human potentials. On the contrary, adverse conditions negatively affect human development though significantly putting barriers to the development of diverse human dimensions, substantially limiting combined capabilities and, hence, enormously reducing human development potentials. Thus, social and cultural conditions need to be human development friendly.
Human development-friendly social and cultural conditions consist of several components such as availability of essential and non-essential services, human development-friendly educational conditions, social relationship opportunities, diversity of culture, and human development-friendly socio-cultural norms and values. Essential and non-essential services, which are important for providing education, improving health status, saving lives and properties, and many other reasons facilitative to development of all including able-bodied and disabled, are of diverse sorts including education, health care, police, and security, fire, and electricity and communication services, and media services. The main point is that society must have varied essential and non-essential services — no matter, whether some essential services are given by the public sector and others by private or both sectors.
Human development-friendly education is to be specially noted here as it is very important for creating consciousness of the self and the outer world, developing rationality — a crucial dimension that helps differentiate between humanness and animality — and improving diverse personal capabilities. But its focus needs to be given on all aspects of human dimensions with significant importance on moral education that can lead to the enhancement of personal capability of making rational choices and decisions reflecting moral values and differentiating choices and actions between humans and animals. Without appropriate education, human beings can find anything reasonable (even if, it is harmful or unethical), or may have unjustified reasons to be and to do, or can be unable to make reasonable choices.
Social relationship, which facilitates the development of emotional, economic and social dimensions of human beings, is crucial for human development — both intrinsically and instrumentally. Social relationship or connectedness can broadly be rendered as relations with family and wider social networks. The family is rendered as crucial for all of its members including children, who need extensive supports from it for their development. Thus, relations with family members are to be based on responsibility, care, and trust. The latter type of social relationship conditions requires that there remain opportunities for connections with relatives, friends, community members, social groups, and social associations (such as community-based clubs and community-based social groups). Of course, social relationship conditions need to be conducive to human development from broad viewpoint.
Diversity of culture — the fourth component —that provides ample opportunities for different ways of living and doing and becoming distinct types of individuals and groups, helps make differences among individuals and groups, gives enough scope of connecting one’s past, present, and future endows with a sense of identity, offers opportunities for absorption of good elements of other cultures or cultural practices, etc., is crucial for human development. This component requires that the multiplicity of culture or cultural identities especially in terms of cultural and sub-cultural components such as ethnic, racial, linguistic, national, or other socio-cultural cultural groups — narrowly within a social unit, organization, or population and broadly in a specific region or the world — is present.
Human development-friendly socio-cultural norms and values — the fifth component — are undeniable for human development. Of course, socio-cultural norms and values can be traditional — which is usually based on family, group, or society-based traditions — and modern — which come with the advancement of time, technological progress, changes in socio-cultural pattern, etc. But only those traditional and modern norms and values that facilitate making of reasonable choices, development of rational characters, promotion of peaceful atmosphere, and progression of humans in a rational way are to be protected and promoted as some traditional and modern norms and values can lead to many negative acts and consequences including engagement with a range of criminal acts.
Technological conditions
Of course, technology — equipment or device resulted from scientific knowledge — plays a very significant role in disseminating knowledge, solving various problems, and facilitating lives and activities (economic, social, and others) with a variety of means. Consequently, technology can enormously improve personal capabilities and societal processes and, hence, significantly contribute to overall human development. On the contrary, technologies, both traditional and modern, can be detrimental to human development because these can end lives, increase health risks and bring about many other negative impacts. Thus, the technological conditions of society need to be conducive to human development. Technological conditions consist of two components such as beneficial technologies and preventive and protective mechanisms against misuse/abuse of technologies.
The first component requires the endorsement of technologies that bring benefits and/or aim at bringing benefits to human beings. The second one requires a mechanism to prevent misuse or overuse and protect from harms owing to overuse or misuse of technologies of diverse sorts such as communication and information, medical, industrial and manufacturing, and military. While the first component can secure benefits of technological innovations, the second one can safeguard from potential harms — unjustified killings, diverse health risks, technological determinism or over-automation, and so on — caused by misuse or overuse of technologies. The bottom line is that technological conditions of society need to be arranged in such a way that facilitates, not obstruct, human development.
Environmental conditions
Of course, the environment has enormous benefits to human beings. A human development-friendly environment that improves conditions of human lives and health (physical, mental and spiritual) through reducing the risk of chronic diseases, allowing to recovery from everyday stress, providing an intrinsic value of nature, giving opportunities for a range of economic and other activities, and many other ways can enormously contribute to human development. But adverse environmental conditions put hindrances to human development by bringing negative impacts on lives and properties, causing loss of economic opportunities, and many other means that limit personal capabilities of doings and beings and societal process. Human development-friendly environmental conditions are composed of two components such as healthy environment and protection from environmental disasters.
The first component refers to both a healthy natural and built environment. While a natural environment requires clean air, safe drinking water, a stable climate, forests, and sufficient green space, healthy water bodies, biodiversity, etc., a build environment requires a safe, clean, or healthy home and workplace, man-made playgrounds, parks, etc. Of course, the natural environment is to be made sustainable so that successive generations, along with the current ones, can meet their needs. The second component requires protection from both natural and man-made environmental disasters such as floods, drought, wildfires, coastal surges, and cyclones. Even if total protection from environmental disasters is not possible always, an effective protective mechanism against such disasters is needed in society.
Legal and political conditions
It is undeniable that legal and political conditions determine how a country functions, how overall societal conditions are arranged for all groups and individuals, and whether and how much people can affect decisions of the government that affect their lives enormously. But legal and political conditions of a society can be conducive and detrimental to human development. While facilitative legal and political conditions enhance combined capabilities of diverse sorts through improving personal capabilities and providing facilitative societal conditions by a variety of means, adverse conditions can largely limit combined capabilities of doings and beings through putting legal, political, and other societal barriers. Thus, political conditions need to be contributory to development. Political conditions require human development-friendly laws and policies, good governance, and political freedom.
The first component, a crucial apparatus for distribution and redistribution of national resources and opportunities among all groups and individuals, indicates that economic, social, political, cultural, environmental, and religious and/or spiritual conditions of a society are arranged for facilitating human development through the improvement of personal capabilities and societal process for persuasion of various reasonable choices and goals of individuals. Of course, laws and policies need to be both facilitative and sanctions-based. The second component — good governance — that usually refers to the process of decision making and the process of implementing decisions requires that there are accountability, transparency, responsiveness, rule of law, effectiveness, etc. in designing and implementing appropriate laws and policies and providing a ran ge of services in a society.
The third component of political freedom that provides an overall political atmosphere helpful to human development is needed for not only securing political potentials but also making sure that individuals can influence the government and/or policymakers regarding their reasonable concerns and help arrange overall societal conditions reflecting their diverse needs, desires or preferences. Of course, political freedom necessitates that there exists freedom to freely participate in politics and/or political process, which is usually related to the government, state, or politics and which indicates diverse characteristics including freedom of participation in electing representatives and freedom to be elected as a representative, freedom of association and assembly, freedom of expression and absence of coercion.
Religious and/or spiritual conditions
With religion and/or spirituality, human beings can find a deeper meaning in life as a whole and can develop other human dimensions such as rational, social, and moral. That’s why religious and/or spiritual conditions can significantly contribute to human development from a broader viewpoint. Though religious and/or spiritual practices are reflected through different cultures or cultural practices, these deserve to be a separate societal condition as these directly relate to an immaterial soul that does not belong to any specific culture or cultural practices. But adverse religious/spiritual conditions can prevent the development of diverse human dimensions including spiritual and, hence, can be enormously detrimental to human development. Religious and/or spiritual conditions, especially facilitative to human development, require religious and/or spiritual freedom.
Of course, freedom of religion and/or spirituality necessitates freedom of belief and freedom of practice. While freedom of belief is the freedom to accept, or deny, or change any specific religious and/or spiritual belief, freedom of practice is the freedom to perform religious and/or spiritual practices, which are of a variety of forms: discussion of spirituality, reading and discussion of religious texts, prayer, worship, observance, meditation, and others. The latter one also refers to the freedom to perform, or not to perform, any particular religious and/or spiritual practices. The main point here is that religious and/or spiritual conditions of society need to ensure that no one is persecuted, prevented, or coerced because of one’s religious and/or spiritual beliefs and practices.
Concluding Comments
It is undeniable that human development-friendly economic, social and cultural, technological, legal and political, environmental, and religious and/or spiritual conditions are important for all human beings for making sure that societal process enhances personal capabilities and improve societal conditions facilitative to human development — the flourishment of human beings to the fullest extent possible through the staged process. Of course, every state does not have the capacity to provide all societal conditions and every human being in any state does not get all such conditions. But overall societal conditions need to be arranged in such a way that is just and conducive to human development from a broad viewpoint and that makes all individuals active agents of their development rather than passive recipients.
To make a just societal system, overall societal arrangements should be made based on the above understanding of human development and its process. Of course, negative freedom — freedom from interference or obstacles by others — and positive freedom — freedom from internal obstacles — need to be given in such a way that protects from external limits or limits unjustly imposed by the state or any other actor(s) and enables individuals by removing internal inability to human development. But positive and negative freedoms given in national laws and policies need to make sure that these can genuinely help all human beings in a country including the disadvantaged make reasonable choices, act as per choices based on reasoned plans and strategies and materialize reasoned choices.
But laws and policies of each country may not be the same on all occasions due to distinct history, traditions, cultural practices, or contextual differences, but legal and policy steps need to make sure that everyone has a scope of developing oneself as a human being with the realization of one’s human potentials essentially with the development of all human dimensions keeping differences between animals and human beings. But laws and policies should justly approach different conflicts of interests. Indeed, individuals may have the same choices or desires against limited options on many occasions giving rise to justified conflicts of interests. In such situations, the just social system needs to make sure that the reasoned interests of those who genuinely deserve are served based on some justifiable criteria.
Of course, the above understanding of human development and its overall process — individualistic and societal process — and the framework of the societal process can help explain overall development of a state. As per these, any state can be rendered as fully developed if all human beings in that state realize potentials to the highest possible extent with essential development of all human dimensions and overcoming of animality. Alternatively saying, a state is fully developed, if the overall society is arranged in such a way that facilitates the fullest human development of all. Since human potentials are infinite and overall societal conditions need to be arranged and rearranged in order to facilitate the realization of human potentials of all individuals, the development of a state is unquestionably infinite.
The human development of a country should be strictly measured in terms of all realized potentials of all, level of development of all human dimensions of all, and level of overcoming animality by all. Of course, it is very difficult to measure these. But the indicator-based measurement of personal capabilities and societal conditions can help understand human development situations of a state. Since it is difficult to identify and measure all combined capabilities, a proxy approach can be developed and used based on some selected indicators of crucial personal capabilities (including education, income, and health status) and societal conditions (including educational budget, earning scope, anti-crime rule of law, and scope of political freedom). This proxy measure will be more inclusive than that of any of the existing indexes including the Human Development Index that measures human development with several indicators — such as life expectancy, education, and per capita income — and will better reflect human development situations of a country. Yet, a country may put emphasis on some selected indicators over others.
Of course, this article does not aim at the identification of specific indicators of societal conditions, even though it clearly outlines societal processes (with a number of components) — from a comprehensive point of view — that are needed for the improvement of the overall societal process for human development and the enhancement of diverse personal capabilities of all. But I believe that this societal process framework will help identify all specific societal indicators needed for overall societal arrangements in any society in a more justifiable manner. Yet, it should be taken into consideration that the list of societal indicators will not remain static, as new challenges related to human development may require the addition of some new indicators.
Some countries may varyingly be in better positions in terms of all or several societal components and/or sub-components of the framework, but other countries many not be in good situations. Otherwise saying, some countries may have better positions in economic and technological positions but others may have better positions in political and religious and/or spiritual conditions and still others may have better positions in most of the dimensions. But all countries, with some variations, may have some limitations on all broader conditions. Therefore, for facilitating overall human development, the societal arrangements of a country need to be based on actual situations.
NB : I am very grateful to Saint Aquinas, Plato, Aristotle, George Hegel, Karl Marx, Amartya Sen, Martha Nussbaum, Abraham Maslow and many others. Their outstanding works on human development and related concepts enriched my understanding and helped me much in making efforts to writing this article.
This article was previously published in the Eastern Herald in February 27, 2021.
