Martha NussbaumThe political role of philosophy and the “capabilities approach”

PHIL 102, UBCChristina HendricksSummer 2015

Except images licensed otherwise, this presentation is licensed CC BY 4.0

Nussbaum on the political role of

philosophy/philosophers

“Four Paradigms of Philosophical Politics” (2000)

Four ancient models for this role

Louvre, Socrates sculpture, by Cherry X on Wikimedia Commons

licensed CC BY-SA 3.0

Socrates

Plato

Aristotle

Imaginary portrait of Epictetus on 1751 Latin version of his Enchiridion (Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

Stoics

What she takes from Socrates

• What sort of role did Socrates play in the political realm, would you say?oWhat might its political value be?

• What might philosophers today do that is similar, and how?oWhat might be the political value of

such activity?

Problem with Socrates’ role

Didn’t engage in political discussions in public forums, but should have (470-471)

Pnyx, Athens, Panorama, by Nikthestunned on Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 3.0

Philosophers in the public forum

What philosophers can do to contribute to public debates on social/political issues• pp. 478, 479

• “Philosophy in the Public Interest” interview (optional reading)“The philosopher clarifies basic theoretical ideas and sets out conceptions of justice …, so that people can see clearly the arguments for and against them, and can compare them to their own considered judgments about justice” (41)

What she takes from Stoics

• What sort of social/political role might a Stoic take on?

• Nussbaum on what is socially/politically useful from Stoicso “therapeutic treatment” of problematic

emotions (480, 483-484)o Cosmopolitanism, and treating all humans as

equal (482-483)o Focus on the value of virtue over other things

(481)

Problem they all have

Ancient Greek & Roman philosophers did not respect pluralism of different ways of life & views of what is most good/important (486)

How can philosophers respect pluralism?

• Provide arguments that could be understood, considered, possibly accepted by many, regardless of their other philosophical or religious views (487)oQuote on pp. 487-488

• Can teach skills that are important for “democratic citizenship” (488), such as Socratic self-examination (487)

Why look back so far?

Why turn to ancient Greece & Rome for models of the political role of philosophy?

Maybe: rhetorically suggesting that philosophy should be more focused on making people’s lives better, as the ancients saw it

ForoRomano1, by Carla Tavares on Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 3.0

Example of Nussbaum’s political role as a

philosopherThe “capabilities approach” to measuring

and improving quality of life

(Amartya Sen also uses a similar approach)

Vasanti

Starts Creating Capabilities: The Human Development Approach (2011) with the story of Vasanti

India 2011-07-18 at 07-24-24, Flickr photo by José Antonio Morcillo, licensed CC-BY

Other approaches to considering quality of

life“Capabilities and Social Justice” article (2002)

What do you think might be good ways to determine people’s quality of life around the world?How might we measure quality of life?

Resource-based approaches

E.g., GNP, GDP (126-127)

Problems:

• Need to focus also on distribution

• Too narrow a measure of quality of life

Preference-based approaches

Are people’s desires, preferences satisfied? (127-128)

Problem: Can reinforce inequalities (how?)

Human rights approach

Are people’s human rights being upheld? (128-129)• What do you think of when you hear

“human rights”?• Problems

oHard to determine what human rights are/what they’re grounded on

oOften focused on “negative” duties of non-interference

oOften focused on public rather than private life

The capabilities approach

What Nussbaum advocates

Basics of this approach

Asks: what are people “actually able to do and to be?” (129)

There are certain capabilities that are required to live a human life, to live well as a human (130)

Suggested list of ten central capabilities

See password-protected readings page (under “weekly schedule”): http://blogs.ubc.ca/phil102

Life

Bodily health

Emotions

Affiliation

Play

Other species

Bodily integrity

Practical reason

Senses, imagination, thought

Control over environment:

political & material

Connect to Vasanti’s story

Definitions

Combined capabilities (132): • Internal abilities, “internal states of readiness

to act” (132), and • Social opportunities & freedoms to express

those internal abilities

Functioning: “active realization of one or more capabilities” (Creating Capabilities book, p. 25)• Why it’s important to require just that

capabilities are developed, not that people put them into practice (functioning) (132)

Capabilities and utilitarianism

• Differences between this and how a utilitarian would approach improving quality of life?

• Problems w/utilitarian approach, acc. to NussbaumoNot sure these apply to Singer’s

arguments, though

Your thoughts

• LC: what do you think of this list of capabilities?

• Groups: o Does this list capture what is required to live

well as a human? Anything missing? Anything there that is not required?

o Any comments on the capabilities approach generally?

http://is.gd/PHIL102Nussbaum