Nussbaum
May 10, 2023•590 words
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