martha nussbaum on the "capabilities approach"
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Martha NussbaumThe “capabilities approach”
PHIL 102, UBCChristina HendricksFall 2015
Except images licensed otherwise, this presentation is licensed CC BY 4.0
Overall course theme: Philosophy of life and death
How ought we to live?
How ought we to think of our own deaths?
What are our duties towards others’ lives and deaths?
PlatoEpicureansStoicsSartreCamus
EpicureansStoicsNagelRosenbaumCamus
MillSingerThomson
Nussbaum: What are the crucial aspects to living a life with human dignity? We should ensure all have those.
VasantiStarts 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
Common approaches to considering quality of
life“Capabilities Human and
Rights” (1997)What do you think might be good ways to
measure people’s quality of life around the world?
GNP or GDP (280-281)
Problems:
• Need to focus also on distribution
• Too narrow a measure of quality of life
Utilitarian approaches based on preference satisfaction (281-283)
Problems: • Distribution again; focus on aggregate
rather than individuals• “adaptive preferences”—can reinforce
inequalities
Distribution of basic rights and resources (283-284)
John Rawls: focus on distribution of basic goods that all rational individuals would desire, ensuring that even the least well off have a decent level
Problem: Having the rights & resources is not enough; social circumstances differences in ability& opportunity to use these
The capabilities approach
What Nussbaum advocates
Basics of this approachAsks: what are people “actually able to do and to be?” (285)There are certain capabilities that are required to live well/flourish as a human, to live a life with human dignity (not in this article)
DefinitionsCombined capabilities • Internal abilities: our own internal ability to act
(289)• Social opportunities & freedoms to express those
internal abilities (290)
Functioning: “active realization of one or more capabilities” (Creating Capabilities p. 25 (not assigned))
Why is it important to focus on capabilities rather than functioning?
Suggested list of ten central capabilities (287-288)
Life
Bodily health
Emotions
Affiliation
Leisure/play
Other species
Bodily integrity
Practical reason
Senses, imagination, thought
Control over environment:
political & material
Connect to Vasanti’s story
Capabilities and Human Rights
What do “human rights” mean to you?
Problems with considering quality of life in terms of human rights?
Capabilities and Human Rights
• Nussbaum’s definition of human rights (292)
• Better to think of human rights in terms of combined capabilities (293-294)Why would this be
better?
Your thoughtsGroups: please answer one of these questions on the document linked below
• Does this list capture what is required to live well as a human? Anything missing? Anything there that is not required?
• Any comments on the capabilities approach generally?
http://is.gd/PHIL102Nussbaum
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