The key question to ask is what a person is able to do and to be, not only what resources they hold.
Martha Nussbaum · Capabilities approach
justicefreedomsociety
Summary
Philosopher
Last reviewed:
Martha Nussbaum
1947– · Capabilities approach · Modern
Martha Nussbaum works on ancient ethics, emotion, and justice. With Amartya Sen's work in the background, she defends a capabilities approach: the question is not only what resources people have, but what they are actually able to do and to be. Creating Capabilities states the approach and a list, life, health, bodily integrity, senses and thought, emotions, practical reason, affiliation, other species, play, and control over one's environment.
Read more
The list is the theory's concrete edge. A one-sentence summary of the question is useful and is marked Summary in this library, because she did not publish that sentence as a motto. Sen is more reluctant to fix a single list. Putting their names together without that difference makes a family of views into one brand.
The Fragility of Goodness, earlier, reads Greek tragedy and philosophy on luck and the good life. Upheavals of Thought treats emotions as intelligent, a neo-Stoic argument with Aristotle in it. She writes a lot, clearly, and at a length that does not want to become a quotation. The secured paraphrase is the handle. The list is the part to read.
The capabilities sentence stays a paraphrase. The Fragility of Goodness and Upheavals of Thought are included as her statements of luck and of emotion. A fifth detached maxim was not invented.
Start here
Creating Capabilities, the opening and the chapter that states the list.
You see the question and the commitments the question is hiding if it stays a slogan.
Quotations
“Much that I did not make goes towards making me whatever I shall be praised or blamed for being.”
Martha Nussbaum · Capabilities approach
ethicsself
Paraphrase or translation
“Emotions are not just the fuel that powers the psychological mechanism of a reasoning creature. They are parts, highly complex and messy parts, of this creature's reasoning itself.”
Martha Nussbaum · Capabilities approach
mindethics
Well attested
Key ideas
Capabilities
Real freedoms to do and be, not resources alone.
The list
A threshold of central capabilities, argued as compatible with dignity.
Fragility
The good life is exposed to luck. Greek ethics knew this. Modern moral theory often forgot.
Emotions
Not mere feelings opposed to reason. Judgements, in her later account.
Major works
The Fragility of Goodness (1986)
Greek ethics and tragedy. Luck and the good life.
Upheavals of Thought (2001)
Emotions as a kind of intelligence.
Creating Capabilities (2011)
The approach in public form, with the list.
Influences
Influenced
- a wide policy literature on capabilities
Common misreadings
- The one-sentence question in this library is a paraphrase. It is not a quotation from a title page.
- She and Sen are not the same view. She defends a list. He is warier.
- Capabilities are not a claim that money does not matter. They are a claim that money is not the whole measure.
Famous lines Martha Nussbaum never said
None of the lines this library files for Martha Nussbaum is marked Questionable or Misattributed. That is only a fact about these cards. It is not a certificate that every popular sentence is theirs.
FAQ
What is the best book to start with?
Creating Capabilities, the opening and the chapter that states the list. You see the question and the commitments the question is hiding if it stays a slogan.
What is the most famous quote?
This library does not measure fame, and it does not rank lines by how often they are shared. The first line it files for Martha Nussbaum that is not marked Questionable or Misattributed is “The key question to ask is what a person is able to do and to be, not only what resources they hold.” (Creating Capabilities (2011), a statement of the approach, Summary).
What is the most misquoted line?
None of the lines this library files for Martha Nussbaum is marked Misattributed or Questionable. That is a fact about these cards, not a certificate that every popular sentence is theirs.
What is one key idea, in a sentence?
Capabilities: Real freedoms to do and be, not resources alone.