Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'fragments/reports', 'Creating Capabilities' and 'Are Freedom and Equality Compatible?'

unexpand these ideas     |    start again     |     specify just one area for these texts


25 ideas

1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 3. Philosophy Defined
Even pointing a finger should only be done for a reason [Epictetus]
     Full Idea: Philosophy says it is not right even to stretch out a finger without some reason.
     From: Epictetus (fragments/reports [c.57], 15)
     A reaction: The key point here is that philosophy concerns action, an idea on which Epictetus is very keen. He rather despise theory. This idea perfectly sums up the concept of the wholly rational life (which no rational person would actually want to live!).
2. Reason / B. Laws of Thought / 6. Ockham's Razor
Keep premises as weak as possible, to avoid controversial difficulties [Nussbaum]
     Full Idea: One should always choose the weakest premises from which one's conclusion follows, rather than saddling the theory with thicker or more controversial premises.
     From: Martha Nussbaum (Creating Capabilities [2011], 8)
     A reaction: I like this because it connects the rather vague Ockham's Razor to the logical concept of Thinning. The key point is that a thinner set of premises that prove something will be more persuasive, because critics may reject premises instead of conclusion.
21. Aesthetics / B. Nature of Art / 8. The Arts / b. Literature
Storytelling is never neutral; some features of the world must be emphasised [Nussbaum]
     Full Idea: Storytelling is never neutral; the narrator always directs attention to some features of the world rather than others.
     From: Martha Nussbaum (Creating Capabilities [2011], 1)
     A reaction: The audience would be a bit stupid if it insisted on neutrality.
23. Ethics / C. Virtue Theory / 1. Virtue Theory / c. Particularism
Particularism gives no guidance for the future [Nussbaum]
     Full Idea: Situation ethics offers no guidance for the future.
     From: Martha Nussbaum (Creating Capabilities [2011], 8)
     A reaction: Not sure if Situation Ethics is the same as Particularism. Jonathan Danby famously champions the latter.
23. Ethics / C. Virtue Theory / 3. Virtues / f. Compassion
Compassion is unreliable, because it favours people close to us [Nussbaum]
     Full Idea: Daniel Batson's important research has shown us that compassion is not reliable on its own, because it can easily give priority to people close to the self.
     From: Martha Nussbaum (Creating Capabilities [2011], 8)
     A reaction: In Britain animal charities receive vastly more money than children's charities, presumably for this very reason. Kittens - you've got to hate them.
24. Political Theory / B. Nature of a State / 2. State Legitimacy / c. Social contract
Social contracts assume equal powers among the participants [Nussbaum]
     Full Idea: All contract theories, including Rawls's, assume a rough equality of physical and mental power among the participants.
     From: Martha Nussbaum (Creating Capabilities [2011], 4)
24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 4. Social Utilitarianism
We shouldn't focus on actual preferences, which may be distorted by injustices [Nussbaum]
     Full Idea: When society puts things out of reach for people, they typically learn not to want those things. ..By defining the social goal in terms of satisfaction of actual preferences, utilitarian approaches often reinforce the status quo, which may be very unjust.
     From: Martha Nussbaum (Creating Capabilities [2011], 3)
     A reaction: Maximising happiness is potentially very paternalistic, whereas preference satisfaction is not, which aligns utilitarianism better with liberalism. It is notorious that slaves can be contented with their slavery, and battered wives can remain loyal.
24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 6. Liberalism / a. Liberalism basics
Liberalism does not need a comprehensive account of value [Nussbaum]
     Full Idea: The role of political liberalism in my theory requires me to prescind from offering any comprehensive account of value.
     From: Martha Nussbaum (Creating Capabilities [2011], 2)
     A reaction: Obviously liberalism has values, but they are the minimum ones of freedom and respect. Liberals have to tolerate some fairly ugly and miserable societies. Can liberals intervene in family life?
24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 12. Feminism
Women are often treated like children, and not respected for their choices [Nussbaum]
     Full Idea: Women are often treated as passive dependents, creatures to be cared for (or not), rather than as independent human beings deserving respect for their choices. In other words they are often infantilized.
     From: Martha Nussbaum (Creating Capabilities [2011], 3)
     A reaction: Her prime example is from India, but you see the same thing in more subtle forms in the UK, especially among older people, and especially in art galleries.
25. Social Practice / A. Freedoms / 5. Freedom of lifestyle
The right-wing conception of freedom is based on the idea of self-ownership [Cohen,GA]
     Full Idea: The right-wing conception of freedom is, I think, founded on the idea that each person is the morally rightful owner of himself, even if existing legal systems do not acknowledge it. Let us call that the 'self-ownership' thesis.
     From: G.A. Cohen (Are Freedom and Equality Compatible? [1986], 1)
     A reaction: He cites Nozick as articulating this view. At the end Cohen rejects self-ownership, though he agrees that no one would accept that the state could be the owner of your eyes. Do I own my hair after it is cut?
Plenty of people have self-ownership, but still lack autonomy [Cohen,GA]
     Full Idea: Universal self-ownership fails to ensure autonomy, since it tends to produce proletarians, who lack it.
     From: G.A. Cohen (Are Freedom and Equality Compatible? [1986], 3)
     A reaction: The implication is that autonomy is not a property of individuals but a social phenomenon. Self-owning people can still be imprisoned. What about autonomy without self-ownership? A bright slave who is given extensive responsibility?
Negative liberty is incoherent; all liberties, to do and to be, require the prevention of interference [Nussbaum]
     Full Idea: The very idea of 'negative liberty' ...is an incoherent idea: all liberties are positive, meaning liberties to do or to be something, which all require the inhibition of interference by others.
     From: Martha Nussbaum (Creating Capabilities [2011], 3)
     A reaction: This rejects Isaiah Berlin's well-known claim that negative liberties are good, but positive liberties are far too dangerous.
25. Social Practice / A. Freedoms / 6. Political freedom
Political freedom is an incoherent project, because some freedoms limit other freedoms [Nussbaum]
     Full Idea: It is unclear whether the idea of promoting freedom is even a coherent political project. Some freedoms limit others. The freedom of rich people to make large donations to political campaigns can limit the equal worth of the right to vote.
     From: Martha Nussbaum (Creating Capabilities [2011], 4)
     A reaction: It is not just American right-wingers who over-emphasise 'freedom'. French philosophy seems to be riddled with the same thing.
25. Social Practice / C. Rights / 1. Basis of Rights
Political and civil rights are not separate from economic and social rights [Nussbaum]
     Full Idea: My approach rejects the distinction, common in the human rights movement, between 'first-generation rights' (political and civil) and 'second-generation rights' (economic and social). The second group are preconditions of the first group.
     From: Martha Nussbaum (Creating Capabilities [2011], 3)
     A reaction: [last sentence compressed] This sounds like the sort of point Marx argued for. Nowadays it is feminists who make this point most strongly.
25. Social Practice / C. Rights / 4. Property rights
It is doubtful whether any private property was originally acquired legitimately [Cohen,GA]
     Full Idea: It is easy to doubt that much actually existing private property was formed in what anyone could think was a legitimating way.
     From: G.A. Cohen (Are Freedom and Equality Compatible? [1986], 2)
     A reaction: What if I created an artificial island out of unwanted raw materials? What about the first humans to reach some remote territory?
It is plausible that no one has an initial right to own land and natural resources [Cohen,GA]
     Full Idea: One may plausibly say of external things in their initial state, of raw land and natural resources, that no person has a greater right to them than any other does.
     From: G.A. Cohen (Are Freedom and Equality Compatible? [1986], 1)
     A reaction: How about if your group has lived on that plot for fifty generations, and some interlopers arrive and claim part of it. No one thought of 'owning' it till the interlopers arrived. Native Americans and Australians.
Every thing which is now private started out as unowned [Cohen,GA]
     Full Idea: In the prehistory of anything that is now private property there was at least one moment at which something privately unowned was taken into private ownership.
     From: G.A. Cohen (Are Freedom and Equality Compatible? [1986], 2)
     A reaction: He is obviously talking about land and natural resources. Presumably a table which I made and own was always private property, although the land where the trees were grown was not. Though in some communities what I make could be automatically communal.
25. Social Practice / D. Justice / 1. Basis of justice
Capabilities: Life, Health, Safety, Mental life, Love, Planning, Joining in, Nature, Play, Control [Nussbaum, by PG]
     Full Idea: Ten Capabilities: Life (decent), Health (reproduction, shelter), Safety, Mental life (with education), Love (relationships), Planning (with free beliefs), Joining in (and non-discrimination), Nature (relations to), Play, Control (politics and property).
     From: report of Martha Nussbaum (Creating Capabilities [2011], 2) by PG - Db (ideas)
     A reaction: She gives her crucial list in rather wordy form. To have impact it needs to be reduced to brief simple slogans.
Justice requires that the ten main capabilities of people are reasonably enabled [Nussbaum]
     Full Idea: The basic claim of my account of social justice is this: respect for human dignity requires that citizens be placed above an ample (specified) threshold of capability in all ten of the areas.
     From: Martha Nussbaum (Creating Capabilities [2011], 2)
     A reaction: [The capabilities are given, briefly, in Idea 21009] The one word that bothers me here is 'dignity'. It is very vague, and can, I think, be reduced to much clearer and more obvious concepts. A person lacks dignity when they vomit, in ordinary usage.
Capabilities are grounded in bare humanity and agency; qualifying as rational is not needed [Nussbaum]
     Full Idea: The capabilities approach grounds rights claims in bare human birth and minimal agency, not in rationality or any other specific property, something that permits it to recognise the equal human rights of people with cognitive disabilities.
     From: Martha Nussbaum (Creating Capabilities [2011], 3)
     A reaction: She says elsewhere that she also sees animals as included in the capabilities approach. This is a rejection of the Kantian grounds for rights (by a well-known Aristotelian).
Rights are not just barriers against state interference; governments must affirm capabilities of citizens [Nussbaum]
     Full Idea: A prominent idea, common in the U.S., sees rights as barriers against interfering state action. ...The Capabilities Approach, by contrast, insists that all entitlements involve an affirmative task for government, to actively support capabilities.
     From: Martha Nussbaum (Creating Capabilities [2011], 3)
     A reaction: This makes her approach very left wing, by U.S. standards, because it needs higher taxation and a degree of government paternalism. Her approach strikes me as an excellent agenda for a fairly interventionist European liberal party.
25. Social Practice / E. Policies / 2. Religion in Society
Any establishment belief system is incompatible with full respect for all citizens [Nussbaum]
     Full Idea: The idea of equal respect is difficult or impossible to render compatible with a religious establishment, even one that is benign and noncoercive. Any established church (or government secularism) denigrates nonbelievers, by stating they are an out-group.
     From: Martha Nussbaum (Creating Capabilities [2011], 4)
     A reaction: This sort of applies to membership of anything. She is sort of right, but there is no reason in principle why full respect should not be accorded to any out-group.
25. Social Practice / F. Life Issues / 6. Animal Rights
We should respect animals in the way that we respect the animal nature in humans [Nussbaum]
     Full Idea: If we show respect to our own animal natures, it is simply inconsistent, and a kind of vicious self-promoting of a sort to which Kantians are especially opposed, to refuse the same respect to our fellow creatures.
     From: Martha Nussbaum (Creating Capabilities [2011], 8)
     A reaction: Nussbaum says Kant is hopeless on animals, but Christine Korsgaard offers this Kantian approach that demands genuine respect for animals, even though they are not considered rational. Nussbaum says animals are agents. Did Kant respect our animality?
It may be no harm to kill an animal which cannot plan for its future [Nussbaum]
     Full Idea: The painless killing of an animal of a species that does not make plans extending into the future may not be a harm: this depends on how we think about the harm of death.
     From: Martha Nussbaum (Creating Capabilities [2011], 8)
     A reaction: Very old human beings may have no plans for the future. I, on the other hand, have got lots and lots of plans. Definitely. No one can specify the harm of death. How can it be distinguished from the harm of not being born?
The Capabilities Approach sees animals as agents, not just as having feelings [Nussbaum]
     Full Idea: The Capabilities Approach sees animals as agents, not as receptacles of pleasure or pain.
     From: Martha Nussbaum (Creating Capabilities [2011], 8)
     A reaction: This is in opposition to the utilitarian view. The key consequence is that animals can be victims of injustice, as well as of cruelty. Nice.