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The Theoretical Foundations and Practical Applications of Martha Nussbaum’S Capabilities Approach

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The Theoretical Foundations and Practical Applications of Martha Nussbaum’S Capabilities Approach THE MIRAGE OF JOURNEY: THE THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS AND PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS OF MARTHA NUSSBAUM’S CAPABILITIES APPROACH By JENNIFER P. FORSHEE A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2017 © 2017 Jennifer P. Forshee To Eleanor, my daughter ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thank you to the Political Science Department of the University of Florida for providing the space for me to come of age intellectually and for allowing me the freedom and time needed to find my footing on the perilous cliff of the academe. Thanks especially to my Chair, Dr. Leslie Paul Thiele, whose patience would have surprised me in a lesser man. Daniel O’Neill, Leslie Anderson, Lawrence Dodd, and Tace Hedrick have, through their work on this committee, made this achievement possible. This dissertation would never have been attempted much less completed without the inspiration and support of my many of teachers and mentors: Margaret Kohn, Thomas Biebricher, Goran Hyden, Leo Villalon, and the other participants in my education who are too numerous to list here. Thank you also to David Tegeder, Chair of the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Santa Fe College, and my colleagues there for their support and friendship. I extend my appreciation to my friends and cohort whose work, both academic and otherwise, inspires me every day: Jay Maggio, Christopher Manick, Matthew Disantis, and Joseph Kraus. A deep debt of gratitude is also owed to my family: to Dustin Fridkin whose intellect is the whetstone that has honed this dissertation and whose faith in me humbles me completely; to my sister, Jami Forshee, without whom I would be a mere husk of myself; to my mother, Deborah Simmons, my lodestar in all things; and, finally, Eleanor Fridkin, the one who puts all other things in perspective. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4 ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... 7 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 9 Mapping Nussbaum ................................................................................................ 10 Chapter Summary ................................................................................................... 13 Notes ...................................................................................................................... 16 2 THE HELLENIC AND LITERARY FOUNDATIONS OF THE CAPABILITIES APPROACH ............................................................................................................ 22 Literary Turn within the Classics ............................................................................. 22 The Urgency of Philosophy ..................................................................................... 30 Liberal Arts and Cosmopolitan Citizenship ............................................................. 34 Capabilities and Development ................................................................................ 35 Notes ...................................................................................................................... 38 3 STOIC ROOTS OF COSMOPOLITANISM ............................................................. 45 The Cosmopolitan Vision ........................................................................................ 49 Stoic Virtue ............................................................................................................. 52 Stoic Politics ........................................................................................................... 55 Stoic Reason .......................................................................................................... 65 Cosmopolitanism and the Conference Room ......................................................... 71 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 75 Notes ...................................................................................................................... 76 4 JUDGMENT AND NARRATIVE IN THE CAPABILITY APPROACH....................... 83 Internal Essentialism ............................................................................................... 85 Narrative and the development of Empathy ............................................................ 92 Adaptive preferences and the unreliable narrator ................................................... 95 Novel Assimilation ................................................................................................ 104 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 109 Notes .................................................................................................................... 110 5 COMMUNITIES IN THE CONTEXT OF DEVELOPMENT PRACTICES .............. 116 Home and Hearth ................................................................................................. 117 Communitarianism ................................................................................................ 121 5 The Charges against Communitarians: Relativism, Passivity, and Parochialism .. 123 Community in International Context ...................................................................... 125 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 139 Notes .................................................................................................................... 139 6 THE VOICE OF (AN)OTHER ................................................................................ 144 Misreading the Marglins ........................................................................................ 144 Putting the Post in Post-Development Theory ...................................................... 159 Female Genital Cutting: Beyond “right” and “wrong” ............................................. 168 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 181 Notes .................................................................................................................... 182 7 AMBIGUITY IN ACTION ....................................................................................... 192 Actionable Philosophy........................................................................................... 193 Practicing the Capabilities Approach .................................................................... 201 Democracy and the Capabilities Approach ........................................................... 204 Nussbaum’s rejection of identity politics ............................................................... 207 Cosmopolitanism in Action .................................................................................... 219 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 227 Notes .................................................................................................................... 229 LIST OF REFERENCES ............................................................................................. 237 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .......................................................................................... 252 6 Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy THE MIRAGE OF JOURNEY: THE THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS AND PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS OF MARTHA NUSSBAUM’S CAPABILITIES APPROACH By Jennifer P. Forshee December 2017 Chair: Leslie Paul Thiele Major: Political Science Martha Nussbaum is one of the most productive, wide-ranging, and influential political thinkers of our time. At the heart of her work is her belief in the incommensurability of human values, her commitment to actionable philosophy, and the reduction of human suffering. These themes emerge in every facet of her oeuvre: from her devotion to classical Greek thought, affection for the ethical value of literature, and her support of international development. The relationship between these facets remains underappreciated and understudied in the academic literature. A true appreciation of her approach to development can only be achieved by placing it in the context of her philosophical and ethical work. Doing this reveals that her position on development, both its desirability and its practical achievement, derive from her philosophical exegesis of ancient Greek texts. For Nussbaum the realization of universal human dignity, a concept that she attributes to the Stoics, has to do with the provision of the conditions of ten capabilities that she argues are derived from the works of Aristotle. We dignify others by allowing them these capabilities. They are pre-political and universal according to Nussbaum in 7 that they ought to exist prior to political negotiation or agreement and, in fact, become the very condition for legitimate political exchange. Narrative can and ought to be, according to her, used to explain to others why these capabilities are important;
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