Overview
Martha Nussbaum (b. 1947) is an American philosopher whose work spans ancient Greek ethics, emotions, and contemporary political liberalism. With Amartya Sen she developed the capabilities approach; her books also defend the cognitive content of emotions and the civic role of literature and imagination.
Main ideas
Human flourishing depends on substantial freedoms—capabilities to do and to be—secured by just institutions. Emotions are evaluative judgments open to education; narrative imagination prepares citizens for moral attention across difference. Luck and vulnerability remain central to a realistic account of the good life.
Major works
- The Fragility of Goodness
- Upheavals of Thought
- Creating Capabilities
- Frontiers of Justice
Legacy
Nussbaum’s capabilities framework informs development policy and liberal political theory, while her emotion theory reshapes ethics and philosophy of mind.