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Loading... Creating capabilities : the human development approach (original 2011; edition 2011)by Martha C. Nussbaum
Work InformationCreating Capabilities: The Human Development Approach by Martha Nussbaum (2011)
   None No current Talk conversations about this book. 1   philosojerk | Mar 8, 2012 |   Fledgist | Apr 14, 2011 |
 "[Creating Capabilities] aims to be an accessible introduction to the capabilities approach that is aiming at undergraduates and general readers. This is not an easy task, given the profoundly interdisciplinary nature of the capabilities approach. Admirably, Creating Capabilities delivers what it sets out to do and serves very well as a first theoretical introduction to the capabilities approach."
If a country ?s Gross Domestic Product increases each year, but so does the percentage of its people deprived of basic education, health care, and other opportunities, is that country really making progress? If we rely on conventional economic indicators, can we ever grasp how the world ?s billions of individuals are really managing? In this powerful critique, Martha Nussbaum argues that our dominant theories of development have given us policies that ignore our most basic human needs for dignity and self-respect. For the past twenty-five years, Nussbaum has been working on an alternate model to assess human development: the Capabilities Approach. She and her colleagues begin with the simplest of questions: What is each person actually able to do and to be? What real opportunities are available to them? The Capabilities Approach to human progress has until now been expounded only in specialized works. Creating Capabilities, however, affords anyone interested in issues of human development a wonderfully lucid account of the structure and practical implications of an alternate model. It demonstrates a path to justice for both humans and nonhumans, weighs its relevance against other philosophical stances, and reveals the value of its universal guidelines even as it acknowledges cultural difference. In our era of unjustifiable inequity, Nussbaum shows how ?by attending to the narratives of individuals and grasping the daily impact of policy ?we can enable people everywhere to live full and creative lives. No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)303.3Social sciences Social Sciences; Sociology and anthropology Social Processes Coordination and control ; PowerLC ClassificationRatingAverage: (3.18)
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Wikipedia in English (3)
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Creating Capabilities is intended as an introduction to the capabilities approach to ethics and political philosophy, aimed at the undergraduate or non-philosopher reader. Per Nussbaum herself, during her APA Eastern Division Author Meets Critic session, she intended to provide a broad overview of capabilities which instructors can use in their lower-level classes, thus obviating the need to read portions of various articles and books throughout which the theory has been spread over the course of Nussbaum’s 20-some years of developing the position.
My biggest concern about this book relates to just this: who constitutes the appropriate audience. As an instructor of undergraduate courses, I would not feel comfortable teaching capabilities to students on the basis of this book. This is primarily because although Nussbaum devotes a great deal of space to summarizing the positive commitments of the capabilities theorist, she does not provide much exposition of the arguments for this position in this book. Rather, she frequently and consistently will reiterate a position, then reference some other paper or book in which the position is actually argued for. In teaching undergraduates, especially non-majors, I find it is imperative to present them with, and in fact place most of the emphasis on, the arguments provided for the positions we discuss. This is generally what I consider to be the most important aspect of an undergraduate philosophy course: teaching students how to argue for positions. If Nussbaum doesn’t present those arguments in this book, then I can’t do that without sending students off to find arguments which are spread out among other papers and books – precisely the action this volume purports to relieve them of.
On the other hand, this book will also be highly unsatisfactory to those who do have a background in philosophy – for precisely the same reason. If a philosopher or other academic is looking to educate herself on the fundamentals of capabilities theory, she will certainly be looking for the normative foundations of the theory, and not a brief and un-filled-out recap. This book takes too much for granted to be instructive to non-specialists, while simultaneously not presenting nearly enough to be valuable to specialists or more fluent readers.
Perhaps the most valuable contribution made by this book is in situating Nussbaum’s version of capabilities theory in the context of the simultaneously-developed but importantly different version of capabilities promoted by Amartya Sen. Here Nussbaum does some work in defending her commitment to a deep political liberalism, as opposed to the perfectionist liberalism which she believes characterizes Sen and others of his ilk. Overall, this book is not recommended, even at its very affordable cover price of ~$15. Readers would do better to invest the time and money into reading Nussbaum’s Women and Human Development and Frontiers of Justice, and Sen’s Development as Freedom, Poverty & Famines, and Hunger and Public Action, along with various papers. (