Martha Nussbaum is a 21st
century female philosopher, professor, and author. She currently teaches law and
ethics as well as philosophy at the University of Chicago. I chose Martha Nussbaum
as my inspirational subject for my final report because she takes definitive
philosophic ideologies such as Classicalism and the Enlightenment and brings
these ideas into a 21st century mind set. Her focus is on solving global
inequality, whether it be due to gender, identity, sexuality, or race. She
believes that there is a massive gap between the wealthiest citizens and the
poorest that must be changed, and this belief is becoming more and more popular
as the wealth gap increases. Classical philosophers like Aristotle and Socrates
inspired Nussbaum to bring their perspective of globalization into the future.
Nussbaum believes that through all citizens of the world reaching to help one another,
we can avoid massive discrepancies of wealth, human rights, and happiness across
the globe.
Awareness
of a problem is a major step towards fixing a problem. Many believe that
because they “worked hard” for their money that gives them the ability to have
power over others. They see social programs as government handouts that allows
the poor to sit at home and get paid to do nothing. Martha Nussbaum strongly
disagrees. Her philosophical viewpoint leans towards social liberalism, which puts
a strong emphasis on civil rights for all citizens including the rights to
equal pay, equal employment opportunities, and equal voting power for all
people. I say “people” as opposed to “Americans” because Nussbaum stresses the
importance of the global economy and its effect on human rights. Due to our
massive global community becoming much tighter, problems that effect countries
across the globe also have an economic effect in the United States.
Globalization comes at the cost of being aware of many major problems around
the world and their effect on an individual’s life. Because of these very recent global developments, we cannot truly know how a massive natural disaster or economic collapse in Europe or Asia may effect South America or Australia. Thanks to philosophers like Nussbaum, these topics are being brought to the forefront of our modern philosophical conversations.
Discussion Questions:
1.
How can the gap between first world countries
and third world countries be bridged?
2.
How does a wage gap effect Americans?
3.
How would “global citizenship” change the way we
see other countries?
4.
Describe how an economic collapse in China would
effect the U.S.
Quiz Questions:
1.
What two Classical philosophers inspired Nussbaum?
2.
Where does Nussbaum teach?
3.
What developments in the past 100 years have
drastically increased globalization?
4.
What philosophical viewpoint does Nussbaum hold?
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She's one of the best contemporary thinkers. She said: “It seems to me that good philosophy will always have a place in the investigation of any matter of deep human importance, because of its commitment to clarity, to carefully drawn distinctions, to calm argument rather than prejudice and dogmatic assertion."
ReplyDeleteThe New Yorker did a nice profile of her a couple of years ago: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/07/25/martha-nussbaums-moral-philosophies
And she said: “An education is truly “fitted for freedom” only if it is such as to produce free citizens, citizens who are free not because of wealth or birth, but because they can call their minds their own. Male and female, slave-born and freeborn, rich and poor, they have looked into themselves and developed the ability to separate mere habit and convention from what they can defend by argument. They have ownership of their own thought and speech, and this imparts to them a dignity that is far beyond the outer dignity of class and rank.”
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