Martha Nussbaum on the "capabilities approach"

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