Aegis 2012
102
Book Review >>> Vinny Sanfillipo
Not for Profit Martha Nussbaum. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2010. 178pp.
In Not for Profit, Martha Nussbaum argues that the humanities are extremely vital for the development of democracies, not just because the various disciplines within the humanities prompt creative thought, and develop argumentative skills, and imaginative capabilities, but also because they enable people to have the skills and abilities necessary to effectively participate in a democracy. She refers to this as a “crisis that goes largely unnoticed, like a cancer; a crisis that is likely to be, in the long run, far more damaging to the future of democratic self-government: a world-wide education crisis” (Nussbaum 1-2). The crisis is that humanities programs around the world are being cut, and little has been done to reverse this pattern. In fact, according to Nussbaum, students may in fact lose the abilities that are necessary to participate well in a democracy, such as “the ability to think critically; the ability to transcend local loyalties and to approach world problems as a “citizen of the world;” and, finally, the ability to imagine sympathetically the predicament of another person” (7). Her two example nations are India and the United States, with the former already far beyond the latter’s shafting of the humanities. She makes several other supplementary arguments in support of the her claims that both the humanities are vital to the health of a democracy, and that without them, democracy as it is currently conceptualized will die out. One argument she makes is that the way a nation grows has been skewed in a way that prioritizes only economic growth, and that this perception has lead some to “never mind about distribution and social equality, never mind about the preconditions of stable democracy, never mind about the quality of race and gender relations, never mind about the improvement of other aspects of a human being’s quality of life that are not well linked to economic growth” (14). In other words, without the humanities as part of the education, growth will continue to be conceptualized as only economic growth, and things such as like social justice and equality may become irrelevant. Her next argument revolves around how the humanities can contribute to the skill set of any student. These skills, she argues, resonate the capability to be active effectively in a democracy. Skills like research, analysis, empathy, critical thinking, argumentation, and logic, learned from studying literature, philosophy, history, and the arts, allow one to participate in a democracy because they allow help one to see the world in different ways, view issues from an alternative perspectives, and understand contemplate the human condition, enough to and empathize with someone on the opposite side. With these kinds of skills, one can be more open-minded and willing to compromise on issues that were formerly contentious. Without these skills, Nussbaum fears that citizens may not be able to form logically-sound, well-rounded opinions about the issues that the democratic nation may be facing.
