146 - Nussbaum, Martha

Summary

Martha Nussbaum (b. 1947) is an American philosopher and public intellectual. Having received a Ph.D. in Classical Philology at Harvard University, her academic positions have included posts at Harvard, where she was a colleague of John Rawls; Brown University; and the University of Chicago. Nussbaum is both an ardent defender of Rawls’s work and a searching critic of his theories.

Much of Nussbaum’s work centers on the articulation of an approach to moral and political questions known as the “capabilities approach.” Originally developed as an alternative to the use of Gross Domestic Product as a comparative index of the quality of life in developing countries, this approach sets forth a list of functional capabilities the development of which to at least a minimal threshold level is central to living a life worthy of human dignity. This list, which Nussbaum emphasizes is open to revision, includes life; bodily health; bodily integrity; senses, imagination, and thought; emotions; practical reason; affiliation; concern for and living with other species; play; and control over one’s environment (both political and material) (Nussbaum 2011, 33–34).