I am a very big fan of the nation, actually. In Cicero's time, there was this idea that although we were members of the whole world of human beings, we also needed to connect our imaginations to a smaller unit. The smaller unit was something we knew we could live or die for, as Cicero died for the Roman republic.
Martha C. NussbaumWhen a profession is protected by academic freedom and tenure, it tends to turn inward. To a large extent that's good.
Martha C. NussbaumEconomists get impatient with philosophy. They are often trained as skilled mathematicians. They don't like going back to ordinary language and first principles.
Martha C. NussbaumIf you really do want to increase women's status, you could focus on just that, but you'd probably better focus also on women's education. Access to artificial contraception, I would say, is also a very important determinant of women's status.
Martha C. NussbaumI think we need government to play a part in having a health policy that makes nursing care available for the increasing numbers who are going to need it.
Martha C. NussbaumI think the imagination helps us move out of the purely oppositional mentality and see the world in a richer and more variegated way.
Martha C. NussbaumDisgust relies on moral obtuseness. It is possible to view another human being as a slimy slug or a piece of revolting trash only if one has never made a serious good-faith attempt to see the world through that personโs eyes or to experience that personโs feelings. Disgust imputes to the other a subhuman nature. How, by contrast, do we ever become able to see one another as human? Only through the exercise of imagination.
Martha C. Nussbaum