Educating for Autonomy: Liberalism and Autonomy in the Capabilities Approach

Martha Nussbaum grounds her version of the capabilities approach in political liberalism. In this paper, we argue that the capabilities approach, insofar as it genuinely values the things that persons can actually do and be, must be grounded in a hybrid account of liberalism: in order to show respect for adults, its justification must be political; in order to show respect for children, however, its implementation must include a commitment to comprehensive autonomy, one that ensures that children develop the skills necessary to make meaningful choices about whether or not to exercise their basic capabilities. Importantly, in order to show respect for parents who do not necessarily recognize autonomy as a value, we argue that the liberal state, via its system of public education, should take on the role of ensuring that all children within the state develop a sufficient degree of autonomy

Progressive Politics: Liberalism, Humanism, and Feminism in Nussbaum’s Capabilities Approach

A purely theoretical analysis of Martha Nussbaum’s basis of the capabilitiesapproach in feminist (rather than more broadly liberal humanist) justiceyields a philosophical project that may appear inconsistent, if not incoherent.However, I suggest in this paper that when the reader considers the project’svery concrete aims, there surfaces an intelligible reason for the apparent incongruities between her feminist and liberal commitments. Since even a capabilities approach rooted in feminist justice is itself radical and must winpolitical support in order to be implemented, I suggest that Nussbaum’s basisof the approach in feminist justice can perhaps be understood as a canny attempt to win support for her project on politically popular grounds, using therhetoric of sex and social justice that has already been embraced by currenteconomic powers. Once arguments based on morally irrelevant differencesbetween sexes are politically endorsed, it will perhaps be easier to argue forthe directly parallel moral irrelevance of differences based on accident ofbirth into the underdeveloped world