Martha Craven Nussbaum 1947 - United States

I am talking specifically about our cultivation of good citizenship. Of course there are many aspects of human self-cultivation, but I am focusing on the qualities that make someone a good citizen of a modern democratic society that is in complicated relationships with other societies. I argue that the goal of this cultivation should be to develop three abilities. First, there is the ability to reason critically, testing what one hears or says for consistency and accuracy. I associate this idea with Socrates’ examination of the Athenian democracy: he said that he was like a gadfly on the back of a "noble but sluggish horse," trying to wake it up so that it could conduct its business in a more reflective and truly deliberative manner. Second, there is the ability to be what the ancient Greek and Roman thinkers called a "citizen of the world": a person who is able to recognize and respect human beings as human no matter in what class, group, or nation they are situated, and who is able to join with them in deliberations about matters of shared importance. I argue that this ability requires us to learn much more than most of us currently know about the major religions and cultures of the world, and about the history and culture of minorities within our own society. Third, there is the ability that I call "the narrative imagination" – the ability to imagine what it might be like to be in the situation of a person differently placed in nationality or society. This ability is an essential complement to the first two, and I argue that it is best trained by instruction in literature and the arts. from TPM

American philosopher. In The Fragility of Goodness (1986)  and The Therapy of Desire (1994)  Nussbaum argues for the continuing relevance of the moral philosophy of Aristotle and the schools of the Hellenistic era. An on-line example of her use of this method may be found in "Victims and Agents: What Greek tragedy can teach us about sympathy and responsibility." She employs more modern literary texts as significant sources of insight into human emotions and decision-making in Love's Knowledge (1990) .

Encyclopedia Entries

Nussbaum, Martha C. Oxford Companion to Philosophy

 

Questions of 

cultivation of good citizenship

Reading

Writing available on the net

Also

Ronald L. Hall, The Human Embrace: The Love of Philosophy and the Philosophy of Love: Kierkegaard, Cavell, Nussbaum (Penn. State, 1999).

Aristotle's De Motu Animalium(1978)

Love's Knowledge: Essays on Philosophy and Literature (1990)

Poetic Justice: The Literary Imagination and Public Life (1996)

Sex and Social Justice (1999) Oxford

Upheavals of Thought: The Intelligence of Emotions(2001)

Commentaries

October 5, 2001- What Makes Martha Nussbaum Run- Chronicle of Higher Education an online discussion 

Philosophy Cultivating Humanity: An Interview with Martha Nussbaum   Interview in TPM

Quotations

"We'll encounter opposition, won't we, if we give women the same education that we give to men," Socrates says to Galucon. "For then we'd have to let women … exercise in the company of men. And we know how ridiculous that would seem."… Convention and habit are women's enemies here, and reason their ally.