Martha C. Nussbaum è professoressa presso l'Università di Chicago, affiliata alla Facoltà di Giurisprudenza e al Dipartimento di Filosofia. Il suo lavoro si addentra profondamente nell'etica, nella filosofia politica e nella psicologia, esplorando spesso come gli individui possano condurre vite fiorenti all'interno delle loro società. Nussbaum è rinomata per la sua capacità di collegare idee filosofiche antiche con questioni contemporanee, enfatizzando l'empatia, la compassione e lo sviluppo delle capacità umane come fondamento per una società giusta. Il suo approccio è caratterizzato da un'argomentazione rigorosa e dall'impegno nell'applicare concetti filosofici alle sfide del mondo reale.
Drawing inspiration from philosophy, history, and literature, the author takes us to task for our religious intolerance, identifies the fear behind it, and offers a way past fear toward a more equitable, imaginative, and free society, through consistent application of universal principles of respect for conscience.
Explores the writings of philosophers like Epicurus, Lucretius, and Seneca who embrace a therapeutic approach, highlighting their contributions to moral and political thought.
The Epicureans, Skeptics, and Stoics practiced philosophy not as a detached intellectual discipline but as a worldly art of grappling with issues of daily and urgent human significance. In this classic work, Martha Nussbaum maintains that these Hellenistic schools have been unjustly neglected in recent philosophic accounts of what the classical tradition has to offer. By examining texts of philosophers such as Epicurus, Lucretius, and Seneca, she recovers a valuable source for current moral and political thought and encourages us to reconsider philosophical argument as a technique through which to improve lives. Written for general readers and specialists, The Therapy of Desire addresses compelling issues ranging from the psychology of human passion through rhetoric to the role of philosophy in public and private life.
This book is a study of ancient Greek views about 'moral luck'. It examines the fundamental ethical problem that many of the valued constituents of a well-lived life are vulnerable to factors outside a person's control, and asks how this affects our appraisal of persons and their lives. The Greeks made a profound contribution to these questions, yet neither the problems nor the Greek views of them have received the attention they deserve. This book thus recovers a central dimension of Greek thought and addresses major issues in contemporary ethical theory. One of its most original aspects is its interelated treatment of both literary and philosophical texts. In a close analysis of three tragedies, and works by Plato and Aristotle, the author argues that we cannot understand the thought of the philosophers without also investigating its relation to the literary works; and that the literary works, in virtue of their form as well as their content, make a distinctive contribution to ethical thought. --From publisher's description
In one of greatest triumphs of the colonial and Revolutionary periods, the founders of the future US overcame religious intolerance in favour of a constitutional order dedicated to fair treatment for people's deeply held conscientious beliefs. This title presents a historical and conceptual study of the American tradition of religious freedom.
Martha Nussbaum asks: How can we sustain a decent society that aspires to justice and inspires sacrifice for the common good? Amid negative emotions endemic even to good societies, public emotions rooted in love--intense attachments outside our control--can foster commitment to shared goals and keep at bay the forces of disgust and envy.
Exploring the intersection of emotions and human goals, the author utilizes insights from philosophy, psychology, anthropology, music, and literature. By examining how emotions influence our understanding of significant aspirations, the book offers a comprehensive analysis of their impact on decision-making and values. Through this multidisciplinary approach, it reveals the profound ways emotions shape our lives and the pursuit of meaningful objectives.
From renowned philosopher Martha C. Nussbaum, a revolutionary exploration of animal rights, ethics, and law.
This volume brings together Nussbaum's published papers on the relationship between literature and philosophy, especially moral philosophy. The papers, many of them previously inaccessible to non-specialist readers, deal with such fundamental issues as the relationship between style and content in the exploration of ethical issues; the nature of ethical attention and ethical knowledge and their relationship to written forms and styles; and the role of the emotions in deliberation and self-knowledge. Nussbaum investigates and defends a conception of ethical understanding which involves emotional as well as intellectual activity, and which gives a certain type of priority to the perception of particular people and situations rather than to abstract rules. She argues that this ethical conception cannot be completely and appropriately stated without turning to forms of writing usually considered literary rather than philosophical. It is consequently necessary to broaden our conception of moral philosophy in order to include these forms. Featuring two new essays and revised versions of several previously published essays, this collection attempts to articulate the relationship, within such a broader ethical inquiry, between literary and more abstractly theoretical elements.
