The Good and Freedom. On Martha Nussbaum’s Capabilities Approach Cover Image

Dobro a wolność. Wokół teorii możliwości Marthy Nussbaum
The Good and Freedom. On Martha Nussbaum’s Capabilities Approach

Author(s): Piotr Machura
Subject(s): Philosophy
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: Martha Nussbaum; the good; freedom; capabilities approach; Aristotelianism

Summary/Abstract: The paper addresses some of the aspects of the neo-Aristotelian concept of good on the basis of Martha Nussbaum’s capabilities approach. The author’s general thesis is that the idea of good organizes its normativity along two vectors pointed towards nature and emancipation, which are interlinked, that is — the normativity of the good is always organized by both of them and it is inappropriate to refer to one of them only. This fault is made, the author believes, by Nussbaum who does not offer enough resources to establish a sound naturalistic evaluative standard in her theory. To address this issue the author starts by discussing the capabilities approach as a form of the concept of good and proceeds by analysing Nussbaum’s view on family as an exemplar of the inadequacies of the approach.

  • Issue Year: 2015
  • Issue No: 33
  • Page Range: 211-230
  • Page Count: 20