"Not for Profit: Why Democracy needs the Humanities"
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Abstract: What is education for democracy? We urgently need to reflect about this, since radical changes in education are occurring without much public deliberation. Narrowly focusing on national economic gain, nations and their systems of education, are needlessly discarding skills, associated with the humanities and the arts, that are needed to keep democracies alive: the ability to think critically; the ability to transcend local loyalties and to approach world problems as a "citizen of the world"; and the ability to imagine sympathetically the predicament of another person.
Nussbaum is the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics, appointed in the Philosophy Department, Law School, and Divinity School at the University of Chicago. She is an Associate in the Classics Department and the Political Science Department, a Member of the Committee on Southern Asian Studies, and a Board Member of the Human Rights Program. She is the founder and Coordinator of the Center for Comparative Constitutionalism.
Her publications include the recently released From Disgust to Humanity: Sexual Orientation and Constitutional Law (2010), Not For Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities (2010), and Creating Capabilities: The Human Development Approach (2011). Her current book in progress is Political Emotions: The Public Psychology of a Decent Society.
Martha Nussbaum
Free and open to the public.