Session V - Challenging Theories of Justice: The Capability Approaches of Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum

Further to our discussion last Tuesday, we now move to pages 69-95, from Martha Nussbaum’s 'Social Contracts and Three Unsolved Problems of Justice’.

Date: 14 February 2012 (Tuesday)
Time: 3.00 pm - 5.00 pm
Venue: Library, Department of Philosophy, University of Delhi

Reading/lecture questions: 

• What alternatives to social contract theory do Sen and Nussbaum propose?
• How would public reason support Nussbaum’s 10 capabilities?
• What logic leads from equal human dignity to preventing shortfalls in the 10 capabilities, for all?
• Does Nussbaum succeed in showing that the capability approach does not face the same roadblocks that social contract theory faces at the three frontiers of justice?

Discussion questions: This week Prof. Drydyk invites your questions. Ideally they should be questions that would be challenging for Martha Nussbaum to answer. Please email your questions to him at JayDrydyk@gmail.com, and he will select some to begin the discussion period.