The Fine Awareness of Martha Nussbaum

Extract

For some years now Martha Nussbaum's reputation as a brilliant literary critic, literary scholar and philosopher has grown with each new publication until today the fact is readily acknowledged even by her most vigorous opponents. Her splendid book, The Fragility of Goodness: Luck and Ethics in Greek Tragedy and Philosophy put her in the first rank of both Greek scholarship and contemporary ethical thought. It has already achieved the rare stature of one of those monumental works by which moral philosophers and literary scholars must now orient their work. Love's Knowledge, however, is not likely to enhance her considerable reputation by much since it contains very little that is new.