The Importance of Particulars: a Critique of Nussbaum’s Capabilities Theory and its Implications for Every Child Matters

Alexis Marie Artaud De La Ferriere

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter (peer-reviewed)peer-review

Abstract

Martha Nussbaum’s influential capabilities theory advocates that each and every individual should be able to function according to certain key indicators of the good life: living to a natural death; bodily health; bodily integrity; senses, imagination and thought; emotions; practical reason; affiliation with other humans; harmonious living with other species and nature; play; control over one’s political and material environment. In this essay, I seek to critique Nussbaum’s capabilities approach to development issues on the grounds that the liberal means she suggests are insufficient to attain her liberal ends. My argument is that, while we should not reject the capabilities approach, inadequacies in current nation-states’ democratic practices jeopardize the legitimacy of any state action aimed at promoting capabilities within disempowered communities. I claim that Nussbaum’s liberalism leads her to identify the correct end-in-sight for political action, but constrains her account of political implementation.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationThe Capability Approach on Social Order
Subtitle of host publicationProceedings of Unseld Lecture 2010
EditorsNiels Weidtmann, Yanti Martina Hölzchen, Bilal Hawa
PublisherLit Verlag
Pages206-224
Number of pages19
ISBN (Print)9783643902245
Publication statusPublished - 19 Mar 2012

Publication series

NameInterdisciplinary Research Works at FORUM SCIENTARIUM
PublisherLIT Verlag
Volume4

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