9/15/2008

Attending a lecture by Martha Nussbaum


Thrsday evening I attended a lecture by Prof. Martha Nussbaum. Martha Nussbaum was born in New York in 1947. Her father was a lawyer, her mother an interior designer. Nussbaum gained a BA from NYU and an MA and PhD from Harvard. Currently professor of law and ethics at the University of Chicago, she is considered one of the world's foremost philosophers. She is an award-winning author whose many books include The Fragility Of Goodness, Sex And Social Justice and Hiding From Humanity. Earlier this year she published The Clash Within: Democracy, Religious Violence and India's Future. (From an interview by Rosanna Greenstreet, The Guardian, Saturday October 27 2007).


Nussbaum has been working closely with Nobel laureate Amartya Sen on the capability approach and also applied it to disability.


This time Nussbaum lectured on American constitutionalism and the capability approach. The lecture was a satellite of the annual conference of the Human Development and Capability Association.


On the photo: This photo is used with permission of Professor Martha Nussbaum (the subject) and the photographer, Robin Holland. The photographer has given a blanket license, including all internet use. Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Martha_Nussbaum_authorized-wikipedia.jpg

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