martha_nussbaum not for profit.pdf

8/10/2019 martha_nussbaum Not for profit.pdf

1/5

1

Martha Nussbaum

Not for Profit

Op 4 september 2011 was Martha Nussbaum te gast op de InternationaleSchool voor de Wijsbegeerte. Zij gaf daar de tweede Van Eedenlezing, en namhet eerste exemplaar in ontvangst van Niet voor de Winst, de Nederlandsevertaling van haar in 2010 verschenen boek Not for Profit. De volledige lezingis te zien en horen op de website van de Internationale School voor deWijsbegeerte: http://www.isvw.nl/nl/nussbaum/ . Hier volgt een schriftelijke weergave van een deel van haar lezing.Monique Leygraaf

Were all in midst of a crisis of massive proportions and grave global significance. () A world wide crisis ineducation. Radical changes are occurring all around the world in what democratic societies teach the young.And those changes have not been well thought through. Eager for national profit, nations and their educationsystems are heedlessly discarding the skills that are needed to keep democracy strong. If the trend continuesnations all over the world will soon be producing generations of useful machines as John Dewey once put ittalking about the bad education systems he was criticizing, rather than complete citizens who can think forthemselves, criticize tradition and understand the significance of another persons sufferings andachievements.() If a nation wants to promote and then sustain that type of humane, people-sensitive democracy, one dedicatedto prom oting opportunities for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as Thomas Jefferson put it, to each

and every person, what abilities will it need to produce in its citizens? At least the following seem crucial:1

The ability to deliberate well about political issues affecting the nation, to examine, reflect, argue,debate, deferring to neither tradition nor authority.

Second, the ability to think about the good of the nation as a whole, not just that of ones own localgroup, and to see ones own nation in turn as part of a complicated world in which issues of manykinds require intelligent cooperative deliberation for their resolution.

And third, the ability to have and to sustain concern for the lives of others, to imagine what policies ofmany types m ean for the opportunities and the experiences of ones fellow citizens, of many differenttypes, and for people outside ones own nation.

But before we can say more about education, I think we need to understand some of the problems we face onthe way of making students and young people generally responsible democratic citizens who might possiblyseek out and implement a human development agenda. So what is this about human life that makes it so hardto sustain egalitarian and democratic institutions and so easy to lapse into hierarchies of various types or,even worse, projects of violent group animosity, as a powerful group attempts to establish its supremacy?Whatever these forces are, its ultimately against them the true education for human developmen t must fight.So, as I would put it following Gandhi, it must engage with the clash of civilizations 2 within each person asrespect for others contends against narcissistic aggressions. This internal clash can be found can be found in allmodern societies in different ways, since all contain struggles over inclusion and equality, whether the preciselocus of these struggles is in debates about immigration, or the accommodation of religious, racial and ethnicminorities, or gender equality or affirmative action. In all societies too, there are forces in the humanpersonality that militate against mutual recognition and respect, as well as also forces of compassion andrespect they give egalitarian democracies strong support.

1 In Not for Profit noemt Nussbaum op deze plaats zeven punten, die ze in haar lezing opnieuw ordent en samentrekt tot driepunten. Deze drie punten komen overeen met de drie vermogens waar een kritisch burger over dient te beschikking / waar opvoeding totmenselijkheid aan dient bij te dragen.2 Vergelijk Not for Profit, p 29 ev.
http://www.isvw.nl/nl/nussbaum/http://www.isvw.nl/nl/nussbaum/http://www.isvw.nl/nl/nussbaum/http://www.isvw.nl/nl/nussbaum/


2/5

2

So what do we know by now about the forces in a personality that militate against democratic reciprocity andrespect? First we know that people have in all places a high level of deference to authority. PsychologistStanley Milgram showed, and these experiments were replicated in many different countries, thatexperimental subjects were willing to administer a very painful and dangerous level of electric shock to anotherperson at least thats what they thought they were doing, of course they really werent doing it so long asthe s uperintending scientist told them: Go ahead. You have to go ahead. Even when the other person was

screaming in pain (which, of course, was faked for the sake of the experiment). Solomon Asch, earlier andagain, these were experiments that were replicated in many different countries showed that people have ahigh degree of deference to peer pressure. Experimental subjects were willing to go against the clear evidenceof their senses when all the other people, who were paid by the experimenter, were saying the wrong thing.() Other research on the emotion of disgust () shows that people are very uncomfortable with the signs of theirown animality and mortality. Disgust is an emotion that initially leases the boundary between ourselves andthe other animals, but then in virtually all societies its not enough to keep ourselves free from determinationby bodily waste products, corpses and so on the other things that psychologists call animal reminders.Instead, people also create subordinate groups of human beings who are identified as disgusting andcontaminating. Saying that theyre smelly, dirty, bearers of disease and so on. Theres al lot of good work doneon how such attitudes figure in history of anti-Semitism, in American racism, in prejudice against women in

many times and places, in the Indian caste hierarchy, in prejudice against people with disabilities, and inprejudice against the people who have same sexual orientation. () Similarly, when p eople are ashamed ofneed and helplessness they tend to want to project that shame on other people, saying that theyre theshameful ones, theyre the ones who should blush for who they are. So both disgust and shame work togetherto create a stigmatized identity for many groups in our society. 3 What else do we know? We know that these forces take on much more power when people are anonymous ornot held personally accountable. People act much worse under the shelter of anonymity, as parts of a facelessmess , than they do when theyre watched and made accountable as individuals. The internet shows that inmany ways that are deeply disturbing.Second, people behave worse when no one raises a critical voice. Aschs subjects went along with a wrong judgement when all the other people that preceded them were saying the wrong thing. But if even one personspoke up and said the right thing, then they were freed up to follow the evidence of their own senses.

Third, people behave much worse when the people over whom they have power are dehumanized and de-individualized. In a wide range of situations people have behaved much worse when the other is portrayed aslike an animal, or as bearing a number rather than a name. In other words, detouring your imagination fromentering that life and seeing it as a full life.So in thinking how we might help individuals and societies to win that internal clash of civilizations we woulddo well to think about how these tendencies can be used to our advantage. The other side of the internal clashis each persons growing capacity for compassion and concern, for seeing another person as an end and not amere means. We now know through the research of Paul Bloom at Yale, that babies as young as one year oldcan think perspectively, that is see the world from the point of view of another person. () Yet, of course, thisis a very rudimentary ability, and its deployed instrumentally. Children think: How can I get my parents tobring me what I want?. Of course it can be used to control other people and not to respect that person as anend and not as a means. Well, () as development goes on, if all goes well in the family and in the schools, the

child can come to feel genuine concern and compassion for the needs of others and can see them as realpeople with rights equal to its own. But that has to happen. Now that we have a sense of the terrain of which education goes to work, I want to return to the ideas Imentioned earlier saying some things that of course are very tentative and incomplete and is still quite radicalin the present world culture, about the abilities that a good education will cultivate at different stages. So,three values I think are particularly crucial for decent global citizenship:

The first is the capacity for Socratic self- criticism and critical thought about ones own traditions.Socrates argues that democracy needs citizens who can think for themselves rather than deferring toauthority and peer pressure. () Democracy needs, he thought, citizens who can reas on togetherabout their choices rather than simply trading claims on count of claims. Critical thinking of theSocratic sort is particularly crucial for good citizenship in a society that needs to come to grips with thepresence of people who differ by eth nicity, class, and religion. Well only have a chance at anadequate dialogue across cultural boundaries if young people learn how to engage in dialogue and

3 In Not for Profit betrekt Nussbaum het gedeelte over disgust meer op het jonge kind (p 32-33).


3/5

3

deliberation in the first place, rather than simply viewing the confrontation as a way of making boostsand assertions about your own group. And theyll only know how to dialogue if they learn how toexamine themselves and to think about the reasons why theyre inclined to support one thing ratherthan another. Rather then seeing political debate as a way of boosting or getting advantages for theirown site. When politicians bring simplistic propaganda their way as politicians in every time andplace have a way of doing young people will only have a hope of preserving independence and

holding the politicians accountable if they know how to think critically about what they hear, testingits logic and examining alternatives to it. So I think this is what Socrates meant when he comparedhimself to a gadfly on the back of democracy which he then compared to a noble but sluggish horse.() Students exposed to instruction in critical thinking learn at the same time the new attitude topeople who disagree with them. They learn to see people who disagree not as an opposing sportsteam to be defeated, but instead as people who have reasons for what they think. When theirarguments are reconstructed and they turned out that they even share some important premises withones own site. And both will understand better where the differences come from. We can see howthis humanizes the political other making the minds see that opposing form is a rational being whomay share some thoughts with one s own group. *Example student B usiness College taking liberal artscourses during a philosophy course he learned about Socrates debates in class he was assignedto produces arguments against the death penalty when he actually supports the death penalty. This

was the first time he realized that is was possible to produce arguments for a position that you dontcall yourself. He understood there was a structure of thought over there and that some points theyactually share, and then the interesting question is: where do the differences come from?]Critical thinking is a discipline that can be taught as a part of the sch ools curriculum, but of course itwont be taught well unless it informs the spirit of a school s pedagogy. Each child must be treated asan individual whose powers of mind are unfolding and who can make an active contribution toclassroom discussion. 4 [32:30 Importance of critical thinking to businesses and economic success.]By emphasising each persons critical voice, we also promote a culture of accountability. When peoplesee their ideas as their own responsibility they are more likely too to see their deeds as their ownresponsibility. That was the point that Tagore was making in Nationalism when he said that thebureaucratization of social life and the relentlessly machinelike character of modern nation states had

deadened peoples moral imagination s leading them to acquiesce in atrocities with no twinge ofconscience. The second key ability of modern democratic citizens I would argue is what I call the ability to think as

a citizen of the world. That is to see oneself as a member of a heterogeneous nation and world,understanding something of the history and the character of the different groups that inhabit it.Knowledge is no guarantee of good behaviour, but ignorance is a virtual guarantee of bad behaviour.Simple cultural and religious stereotypes in our world, for example the facile equation of Islam withterrorism. And the first way to begin combatting these is to make sure that from a very early agestudents learn a different relationship to the world. Issued gradually come to understand both thedifferences that make understanding difficult between groups and nations, and shared human needsand interests that make understanding a central of common problems are to be solved. Thisunderstanding of the world will promote human development only if it is itself infused by searching

critical thinking. Thinking that focuses on differences of power and opportunity. And so history will betaught not as a set of pre-established facts, but in a way that encourages students to ask how thehistorical narratives are put together; from whose point of view; with whose interests and so on.Things that have been happening, gladly, more and more. At the same time, traditions and religions ofmajor groups in ones own culture and in the world will be taught in w ays appropriate to each age, butstudents will gradually come to have a more sophisticated understanding of those, and capable ofappreciating nuances, differences of sub-group and so on. In curricular terms, these ideas suggest thatall young citizens should learn rudiments of world history and should get a non-stereotypicalunderstanding of the major world religions, again with increasing sophistication as they get older, andthen should learn how to greater depth into at least one unfamiliar tradition in this way acquiringskills that can later be used elsewhere. ()

The third ability of the citizen, closely related to the first two, is what I would call the narrativeimagination. This means the ability to think what it might be like to be in the shoes of a person

4 Vgl Not for Profit , p 55.


4/5

4

different from oneself, and many different sorts of such people. To understand what the problems arethat that person faces. To be an intelligent reader of that persons story and therefore to be able tounderstand at least some of the emotions and wishes and desires that a person so placed might have.The cultivation of sympathy has been a key part of the best modern ideas of progressive education inboth Western and non-Western nations. ( ) Learning to see another human being not as a thing butas a full person doesn t come automatically. It must be promoted by an education that refines the

ability to think about what the inner life of another person might be like, but also to understand whyone can never fully grasp that inner world, why any person is always to a certain extend dark to anyother including oneself to oneself.The arts can cultivate students sympathy in many ways through engagement with many differentkinds of works of literature, music, fine art and dance. But thought needs to be given to what astudent s particularly blind spots are likely to be. And works can be chosen in consequence. For allsocieties at all times have their own particular blind spots: groups within the culture and also groupsabroad that are specially likely to be dealt with ignorantly and obtusely. Works of art can be chosen topromote criticism of this obtuseness, and more adequate vision of the unseen. The great African-American novelist Ralph Ellison, in a later essay about his novel Invisible Man , wrote that a novel likehis could be a raft of perception, hope, and entertainment on which American culture couldnegotiate the snags and whirlpools that stand between us and our democratic ideal. Well, his novel

takes the inner eyes of the white reader as its theme and its target. Inner eyes is a phrase he uses.The hero tells us at the beginning: I m an invisible man. And then he goes on to say that his invisibilityin American society is not the result of a chemical accident ( ). But it s the result of a deficiency of theinner eyes of the people who are looking at him. And what we find out, as this wonderfully surreal,funny, and tragic novel goes on, is that what people are seeing when they look at him, are alwaysprojections of their own fantasy in one way or another. There s really no genuine curiosity about whathe s experiencing and what it s like. They re all using him in one or another way. So his idea is theinvisibility is an imaginative and educational fail on the part of white society that can be addressed bya novel such as this. Through the imagination we can gain a kind of insight into the experience ofanother group or person, which is very difficult to attain in daily life. Particularly when our world isconstructed sharp separations between groups and suspicions that make any encounter difficult.[42:02 Example of the Chicago Childrens Choir Not for Profit, p 112-117] Three stories illustrate

what Stone is talking about. One day, she came into rehearsal room of the Concert Choir and heard agroup of African American girls singing a complicated passage of a Bach motet that they had beenrehearsing. So, she said, you re getting in some extra rehearsal time? No, they said, we re justchilling. The fact that these African American girls from inner-city schools felt that an natural way tochill out, to relax together, was to sing a Bach motet, showed that they did not feel ashamed in theface of so-called high culture; they didn t feel confined to black culture; they could claim any culture astheir own and take membership of it. It was theirs as much as the world of the spirituals.

Teaching of the sort that I ve been recommending needs small classes, or at least sections in larger classes,where students get copious feedback on frequent writing assignments, and are encouraged to talk and debatein class.() [T]he abilities of citizenship are doing pretty poorly I think in more or less every nation in the most crucialyears of children s lives, the years known as K through 12. Here the demands of the global market have made

everyone, including parents, focus on technical proficiencies as the key thing, then the humanities and the artsare increasingly perceived as useless frills who d we can prune away to make sure that our nation (whether it sIndia or the US) remains competitive. To the extend that they re the focus of national discussion, they arerecast as technical abilities themselves to be tested by quantitative multiple-choice examinations, so theimaginative and critical abilities that lie at their core are left aside. 5 () At least my first and third ability aretestable by quantitative multiple-choice exams. And the second, the historical one, well, ( ) it would be veryhard to construct the right sort of history test.If the real clash of civilizations is, as I believe, a clash within the individual person, s greed and narcissismcontend against respect and concern, all modern societies are losing the battle, as they feed the forces thatlead to dehumanization and fail to feed the forces that lead to cultures of respect. If we don t insist on thecrucial importance of the humanities and the arts, they will grow smaller, because they re not making money.They only do what is much more precious than that: make a world that is worth living in, people who are able

5 Vgl Not for Profit , p 133. K thought 12: sum of primary and secondary education.


5/5

5

to see other human beings as full people, with thoughts and feelings of their own that deserve respect andsympathy, and nations that are able to overcome fear and suspicion in favour of reasoned democratic debate.Thanks.

martha_nussbaum not for profit.pdf

Documents