Nussbaum

Life

Martha C. Nussbaum

• Context
  • Post WWII philosophy was analytical
  • Stoicism and utilitarianism
  • Economic revival 1945-1952, superpower status and global importance
  • Civil Rights movement and Red Scare 1953-1958
  • Contemporary feminism 1953-1965
• Life
  • Born 1947
  • First studies were theater and classics
  • Studied at University of New York and Harvard
  • Critical of the stoics
  • Rebellious
  • Involved in social justice movements
  • teaches at UChicago

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Philosophy

The Fragility of Goodness

• Nature of good
  • man is good but it is a fragile state
  • Ungoverned elements of personality
  • Internal moral conflict should not be avoided
  • Natural state is a state of luck
• Cultivating Humanity Liberal education
  • Defends liberal education
  • Socratic: Citizens’ duty is to be critical (a need for Gadflies)
  • University set standards for reason
  • Should be citizens of the world
• Sex and Social Justice
  • Sex is integral to power relations
  • Rejects utilitarianism and relativism for their allowance of the continuation of these relations
  • U.S Feminism now is an intellectual luxury
  • Need for international feminism
  • Neo-Aristotelian “Gold Middle” of liberal and radical feminism:
  • LGTBQ rights
  • Humanity should not be a means to an end
  • Influence of the UN World Institute for Development Economics Research
  • Religious tolerance: women were oppressed politically and religiously, studied religion
  • Needed to acknowledge all inequality, did not like the contemporary feminist attacks on men
• Hiding from Humanity: Emotion and legislature
  • Reaction to Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse
  • Neo-Stoicim, did not think emotion could be separated from political decisions
  • Shaming penalties are undignified and unlawful, they are not disgusted or shamed of their actions but the person
  • Shame and disgust are irrational but have legal justification to subordinate certain groups in almost all societies
  • Emotions can be accepted into law
  • Distinction of person and acts
  • Shame is an unjust tool for Power and Relations, justifies “misogony, anti-Semitism, and loathing of homosexuals”
  • Writes a lot on emancipations
  • Liberalism based not on group identity, but individuality
  • Respect for others is a tenant: No harm principle of Mill
• Creating Capabilities
  • “What are people actually able to do and to be?” - capabilities approach through welfares
  • idea of welfare economies
  • Normative evolution of justice
• We Democracies Need Humanities
  • Too much focus on sciences
  • Uses their philosophies to explain current issues
• The Political Emotions and The Monarchy of Fear - Emotions
  • People are influenced by emotions
  • Fear has an impact, it leads to anger which manifests itself in politics
  • People are that are fearful and then angry demand retribution: repentance, reparation, humiliations
  • Seen in climate change, immigration, calls for reparations
  • It is counter-productive: it categorizes people and creates more fear in anger
  • Logos is not always possible, anger and fear require ethos
  • Gives example of forgiveness Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, MLK did not mobilize anger
• Patriotism
  • To mobilize unity and collectivism
  • “Everyone in society should do three years of national service”
  • Everyone should do some type of service to increase mutual understanding and collective identity
  • Both feel the need for patriotism to increase accountability (it is against individualism)

Impact

• Career
  • Teaches at University of Chicago
• Social issues
  • Gay marriage in Colorado
• Criticism
  • Hypocritical self reflections
  • Partiality in women’s rights in religion