Synopses & Reviews
Theories of social justice are necessarily abstract, reaching beyond the particular and the immediate to the general and the timeless. Yet such theories, addressing the world and its problems, must respond to the real and changing dilemmas of the day. A brilliant work of practical philosophy,
Frontiers of Justice is dedicated to this proposition. Taking up three urgent problems of social justice neglected by current theories and thus harder to tackle in practical terms and everyday life, Martha Nussbaum seeks a theory of social justice that can guide us to a richer, more responsive approach to social cooperation.
The idea of the social contract--especially as developed in the work of John Rawls--is one of the most powerful approaches to social justice in the Western tradition. But as Nussbaum demonstrates, even Rawls's theory, suggesting a contract for mutual advantage among approximate equals, cannot address questions of social justice posed by unequal parties. How, for instance, can we extend the equal rights of citizenship--education, health care, political rights and liberties--to those with physical and mental disabilities? How can we extend justice and dignified life conditions to all citizens of the world? And how, finally, can we bring our treatment of nonhuman animals into our notions of social justice? Exploring the limitations of the social contract in these three areas, Nussbaum devises an alternative theory based on the idea of "capabilities." She helps us to think more clearly about the purposes of political cooperation and the nature of political principles--and to look to a future of greater justice for all.
Review
In her new and pathbreaking book, Martha Nussbaum shows that the social contract tradition, despite its great insights, cannot handle some of the most important political problems of our day, and she points the way to a conception of justice more attuned to our human frailty, our global society, and our place in the natural world. This work will change how we think about the nature of social justice. Charles Larmore, University of Chicago
Review
In this groundbreaking work, Nussbaum develops her capabilities approach--enlarging our conceptions of reciprocity, dignity, and flourishing--in an effort to make it adequate to the three problem areas. The results of this original, erudite investigation include major contributions to moral and political theory, disability studies, the international relations literature, and animal ethics. David DeGrazia, George Washington University
Review
Martha Nussbaum has written a substantial philosophical treatise on the difficulties that recent fashions in political theory have put in the way of understanding the nature of justice for the mentally and physically disabled, foreigners, and animals...She is philosophically deft...One real achievement of Frontiers of Justice is to stir up the reader's imagination. Some books beat the reader into submission; Martha Nussbaum has never done that, and here she invites the reader into an open-ended discussion in just the way one wishes that all other philosophers did. Harvard Law Review
Review
Professor Nussbaum calls her work a "picture of who we are" in a world "more complicated, and interdependent, than philosophical theory has often acknowledged." But it may also be a map for navigating that complicated world in the pursuit of justice. John Gray - The Nation
Review
For over thirty years, thanks to John Rawls's great work, the idea of a social contract has provided the dominant framework for liberal theories of justice. Frontiers of Justice is the most important challenge to this framework from within liberalism since the ascendancy of Rawls's theory. Eschewing utilitarianism, Nussbaum draws on the capabilities approach she developed elsewhere to show deep problems with using the social contract idea for modeling the liberal ideals of inclusiveness and equal respect for human dignity. The book's impact on liberal political thought will be resounding. Its arguments and program are bound to be discussed for a long time. John Deigh, University of Texas at Austin
Review
Prevailing ethical theories neglect three important subjects: the treatment of persons with disabilities, the scope of justice beyond the nation state, and duties owed to non-human animals. Martha Nussbaum's landmark book offers a courageous and bold approach to these issues based on fellowship and respect. Honest about where it builds on past theories and where it departs from them, Frontiers of Justice boldly and elegantly charts the territory for much needed theoretical and policy debates. Martha Minow, Harvard Law School
Review
For over thirty years, thanks to John Rawls's great work, the idea of a social contract has provided the dominant framework for liberal theories of justice. Frontiers of Justiceisthe most important challenge to this framework from within liberalism since the ascendancy of Rawls's theory. Eschewing utilitarianism, Nussbaum draws on the capabilities approach she developed elsewhere to show deep problems with usingthe social contract idea for modeling the liberal ideals of inclusiveness and equal respect for human dignity. The book's impact on liberal political thought will be resounding. Its arguments and program are bound to be discussed for along time.
Review
'Professor Nussbaum calls her work a \"picture of who we are\" in a world \"more complicated, and interdependent, than philosophical theory has often acknowledged.\" But it may also be a map for navigating thatcomplicated world in the pursuit of justice.'
Review
'Prevailing ethical theories neglect three important subjects: thetreatment of persons with disabilities, the scope of justice beyond the nation state,and duties owed to non-human animals. Martha Nussbaum\'s landmark book offers acourageous and bold approach to these issues based on fellowship and respect. Honestabout where it builds on past theories and where it departs from them,Frontiers of Justiceboldly and elegantly charts theterritory for much needed theoretical and policy debates.'
Review
Martha C. Nussbaum's impressive new book Frontiers of Justice can be easily summarized as Rawls meets Aristotle...Well-argued and beautifully written, Frontiers of Justice is an important, provocative and thoroughly admirable book, and will be essential reading for anyone interested in the concepts of justice and moral entitlement. Mark Rowlands
Review
Nussbaum's explication of the human and animal capabilities essential for lives of dignity sets a demanding, detailed, moral and political standard to strive for. David McCabe - Commonweal
Review
[Nussbaum] aims to widen the reach of Rawlsian theory by addressing questions it has thus far largely neglected, such as the role of distributive justice in international relations, the claims of disabled people and the moral status of nonhuman animals. Nussbaum's resourceful and imaginative exploration of Rawls's work displays a command of the longer tradition of political philosophy that matches and even surpasses that of Rawls, along with a notably richer sensitivity to the history and variety of constitutional arrangements. The result is a notable contribution to philosophical inquiry that merits the most careful study by all who try to think seriously about public policy. Times Literary Supplement
Review
The task of the public intellectual is to ensure that important areas of common life (public policy, cultural activities, moral understandings, and so on) live up to the standards thoughtful reflection reveals. The United States has not proved the most fertile ground for this sort of person, but now and then contenders arise, and Martha Nussbaum is surely one of the more formidable candidates of our time, discharging the responsibilities of that role with a dizzying industriousness...In Frontiers of Justice she brings her considerable talents and energy to a set of questions which, she persuasively argues, public discourse and philosophical reflection have too long ignored: namely, what are our obligations to the disabled in our midst, the poor around the globe, and nonhuman animals everywhere? Alan Ryan - New York Review of Books
About the Author
<>Martha C. Nussbaumis Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of <>Law and Ethics Department of Philosophy, Law School, and Divinity School at the University of Chicago. She is the author of many books, including Poetic Justice, Loveandrsquo;s Knowledge, and The Fragility of Goodness.
Table of Contents
Abbreviations
Introduction
1. Social Contracts and Three Unsolved Problems of Justice
i. The State of Nature
ii. Three Unsolved Problems
iii. Rawls and the Unsolved Problems
iv. Free, Equal, and Independent
v. Grotius, Hobbes, Locke, Hume, Kant
vi. Three Forms of Contemporary Contractarianism
vii. The Capabilities Approach
viii. Capabilities and Contractarianism
ix. In Search of Global Justice
2. Disabilities and the Social Contract
i. Needs for Care, Problems of Justice
ii. Prudential and Moral Versions of the Contract; Public and Private
iii. Rawls's Kantian Contractarianism: Primary Goods, Kantian Personhood, Rough Equality, Mutual Advantage
iv. Postponing the Question of Disability
v. Kantian Personhood and Mental Impairment
vi. Care and Disability: Kittay and Sen
vii. Reconstructing Contractarianism?
3. Capabilities and Disabilities
i. The Capabilities Approach: A Noncontractarian Account of Care
ii. The Bases of Social Cooperation
iii. Dignity: Aristotelian, not Kantian
iv. The Priority of the Good, the Role of Agreement
v. Why Capabilities?
vi. Care and the Capabilities List
vii. Capability or Functioning?
viii. The Charge of Intuitionism
ix. The Capabilities Approach and Rawls's Principles of Justice
x. Types and Levels of Dignity: The Species Norm
xi. Public Policy: The Question of Guardianship
xii. Public Policy: Education and Inclusion
xiii. Public Policy: The Work of Care
xiv. Liberalism and Human Capabilities
4. Mutual Advantage and Global Inequality: The Transnational Social Contract
i. A World of Inequalities
ii. A Theory of Justice: The Two-Stage Contract Introduced
iii. The Law of Peoples: The Two-Stage Contract Reaffirmed and Modified
iv. Justification and Implementation
v. Assessing the Two-Stage Contract
vi. The Global Contract: Beitz and Pogge
vii. Prospects for an International Contractrarianism
5. Capabilities across National Boundaries
i. Social Cooperation: The Priority of Entitlements
ii. Why Capabilities?
iii. Capabilities and Rights
iv. Equality and Adequacy
v. Pluralism and Toleration
vi. An International "Overlapping Consensus"?
vii. Globalizing the Capabilities Approach: The Role of Institutions
viii. Globalizing the Capabilities Approach: What Institutions?
ix. Ten Principles for the Global Structure
6. Beyond "Compassion and Humanity": Justice for Nonhuman Animals
i. "Beings Entitled to Dignified Existence"
ii. Kantian Social-Contract Views: Indirect Duties, Duties of Compassion
iii. Utilitarianism and Animal Flourishing
iv. Types of Dignity, Types of Flourishing: Extending the Capabilities Approach
v. Methodology: Theory and Imagination
vi. Species and Individual
vii. Evaluating Animal Capabilities: No Nature Worship
viii. Positive and Negative, Capability and Functioning
ix. Equality and Adequacy
x. Death and Harm
xi. An Overlapping Consensus?
xii. Toward Basic Political Principles: The Capabilities List
xiii. The Ineliminability of Conflict
xiv. Toward a Truly Global Justice
7. The Moral Sentiments and the Capabilities Approach
Notes
References
Index