1. Martha Nussbaum The “capabilities approach”
PHIL 102, UBC
Christina Hendricks
Spring 2018
Except images licensed otherwise, this presentation is licensed CC BY 4.0

2. Questions she is addressing
How should we evaluate quality of life?
What does this say about how we should help those in need?
Image licensed CC0 from pixabay.com
Image licensed CC0 from pixabay.com

3. Vasanti’s story
Nussbaum starts Creating Capabilities: The Human Development Approach (2011) with the story of Vasanti
India at , Flickr photo by José Antonio Morcillo, licensed CC-BY

4. Common approaches to considering quality of life
“Capabilities Human and Rights” (1997)
What do you think might be good ways to measure people’s quality of life around the world?

5. GNP or GDP Problems: Doesn’t consider distribution
Too narrow a measure
Image licensed CC0 from pixabay.com

6. Utilitarian approaches (based on preference satisfaction)
Problems:
Also doesn’t consider distribution
“adaptive preferences” (283)—can reinforce inequalities
Friends image , chocolate image , rock climber image licensed CC0 from pixabay.com

7. Distribution of basic rights & resources
John Rawls: rights & resources that all rational individuals would desire, so that even the least well off have a minimum level Problem: Having the rights & resources is not enough; social circumstances differences in ability & opportunity to use them (284)

8. The capabilities approach
What Nussbaum advocates

9. Basics of this approach
Asks: what are people “actually able to do and to be?” (285)
There are certain capabilities required to live well/flourish as a human, to live with human dignity (286)

10. Nussbuam’s list of ten central capabilities (287-288)
Life
Emotions
Other species
Bodily health
Practical reason
Leisure/play
Bodily integrity
Affiliation
Control over environment:
political & material
Senses, imagination, thought
Your views…?

11. Capabilities vs. Functioning
Combined capabilities include both:
Internal capabilities: the internal ability to act (289)
External conditions: social opportunities & freedoms to express internal ability (290)
Functioning: fulfilling one or more capabilities (289)
Why is it important to focus on capabilities rather than functioning?

12. How differs from utilitarianism?
Distribution: Not just what people prefer or what will give them pleasure, but focus on flourishing as a human, living a fully human life

13. Capabilities & Human Rights (optional parts of article)
Capabilities can clarify what “human rights” are ( )
Emphasize both internal and external requirements for human rights
Eleanor Roosevelt & the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (1948); public domain on Wikimedia Commons