Martha Nussbaum!The “capabilities approach”

PHIL 102, UBC Christina Hendricks Fall 2015

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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?

Plato Epicureans Stoics Sartre Camus

Epicureans Stoics Nagel Rosenbaum Camus

Mill Singer Thomson Nussbaum: What are the crucial aspects to living a life with human dignity? We should ensure all have those.

Vasanti Starts 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 approach Asks: 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)

Definitions Combined 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))

Suggested list of !ten central capabilities (287-288)

Life  

Bodily  health  

EmoGons  

AffiliaGon  

Leisure/play  

Other  species  

Bodily  integrity  

PracGcal  reason  

Senses,  imaginaGon,  thought  

Control  over  environment:  

poliGcal  &  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)

Your thoughts Groups: 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