Quotation
Last reviewed:
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 · Modern · 2011
What does it mean?
The key question, on the capabilities approach, is what a person is able to do and to be, not only what resources they hold. Two people with the same income can have very different real freedoms. A rival reading, resourcist, says this multiplies the state's business intolerably, and that income is the decently neutral measure. She argues for a list of central capabilities and a threshold below which a life is not compatible with the dignity she defends. Another reading, closer to Sen, refuses a single list.
Did Martha Nussbaum really say this?
The library’s label is Summary. Summary, not a sentence from one page. The card restates the capabilities approach as Nussbaum states it in Creating Capabilities. She argues for a list of central capabilities — life, health, bodily integrity, senses and thought, emotions, practical reason, affiliation, other species, play, and control over one's environment.
Where it comes from
Creating Capabilities (2011), a statement of the approach
Approximate date: 2011.
How to use it
When you compare two households that look equal on a spreadsheet in a local authority, ask what each person can genuinely do and be. Access, safety, schooling, and care can make the same 'resource' into two different lives. The question is hers. The spreadsheet may still be what the meeting has. The approach says the spreadsheet is not the whole of justice.
A mindset reading
A labelled summary is a usable handle, and it is not a quotation. Her list, life, health, bodily integrity, senses and thought, emotions, practical reason, affiliation, other species, play, and control over one's environment, is the part worth reading in full rather than trusting this sentence to carry.
Understand the philosophy
She develops capabilities as a partial theory of justice. Amartya Sen's related work is more reluctant to fix one list. Putting their names together without that difference is how a family of views becomes one slogan.
- justice
- freedom
- society
FAQ
What does it mean?
The key question, on the capabilities approach, is what a person is able to do and to be, not only what resources they hold. Two people with the same income can have very different real freedoms. A rival reading, resourcist, says this multiplies the state's business intolerably, and that income is the decently neutral measure. She argues for a list of central capabilities and a threshold below which a life is not compatible with the dignity she defends. Another reading, closer to Sen, refuses a single list.
Did Martha Nussbaum really say this?
Summary. Summary, not a sentence from one page. The card restates the capabilities approach as Nussbaum states it in Creating Capabilities. She argues for a list of central capabilities — life, health, bodily integrity, senses and thought, emotions, practical reason, affiliation, other species, play, and control over one's environment.
Which work is it in?
Creating Capabilities (2011), a statement of the approach Approximate date: 2011.