Love's Knowledge: Essays on Philosophy and Literature

by Martha C. Nussbaum

Book Overview

This volume brings together Nussbaum's published papers on the relationship between literature and philosophy, especially moral philosophy. The papers, many of them previously inaccessible to non-specialist readers, deal with such fundamental issues as the relationship between style and content in the exploration of ethical issues; the nature of ethical attention and ethical knowledge and their relationship to written forms and styles; and the role...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0023BSLZU
• ISBN13: 9780195074857
• Release Date: April 1992
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 1.39 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 9.1" x 6.1"

Customer Reviews

Nussbaum stimulates us to raise serious questions

"Martha Nussbaum's philosophy assumed an ambivalent attitude towards the volatile subject of emotion...Given this..., Nussbaum's systematic defense of the ethical and cognitive dimensions of emotion, makes a significant contribution to contemporary philosophy and to feminist theory." Claudia Moscovici Moral philosophy has flourished in recent years, and Nussbaum has been one of its most vivid practitioners. Ways of thinking and writing that developed in the analytic tradition are appropriate to some inquiries, such as epistemology and philosophy of science, but they cannot accomplish what is necessary for moral philosophy. Most Ancient Wisdom: The oldest work of social moral Philosophy known to us is the "Instruction of Ptah-Hotep," which apparently goes back to 2880 BC, 2300 years before Confucius, Socrates and Buddha. Ptah-Hotep, Governor of Memphis, instructs his son, and successor: "Be not proud because thou art learned; but discourse with the ignorant as with the sage. For no limit could be set to skill, neither is there any craftsman that possesseth full advantages. ...Overstep not the truth, neither repeat that which any man, be he prince or peasant, saith in opening the heart; it is abhorrent to the soul..." (cited in J. H. Breasted: The Dawn of Conscience) Poverty of a moral philosophy: Nussbaum conceives moral philosophy neither as the formulation and systematization of rules; nor as the identification of "virtues" constitutive of a good character. Like several other philosophers, she argues that the attentive reading of literary works, specifically novels, is an indispensable aid for moral reflection. Martha Nussbaum's lack of a discernible interest in religion has not hindered the Divinity School, University of Chicago from assigning her a course in Theological Ethics. For her, novels provide rich emotions and meticulous situations relative to the real complexities of experience. By contrast, the examples created by philosophers are thin and lack support. Nussbaum's emphasis has typically been on the poverty of a moral philosophy that fails to use the great resources provided by literature. She argues, there are some aspects of knowledge that are revealed to us only when we experience some emotions, especially love. We may love people because of what we know about them, but we come to know them more fully because we love them. Alan Jacobs thinks Nussbaum finds most compelling accounts of the richness of our emotional lives portrayed in great novels. Novels are particularly rich in their explorations of these issues, though such understanding need not be gained only from novels. Analytical Evaluation: "Nussbaum's project orbits elliptically around two points: the defense of reflection on the literary particular against Kantians, utilitarians, Platonists, analytic philosophers, and any other one-sided champions of the general and universal; and actual commentaries on scenes from novels she loves and finds particularly si

Taking stories seriously

A collection of essays all of which present us with possibilities -- stories as moral teachers. We all learn from, care about, and revel in the stories that we read. Nussbaum takes seriously our ability to approach fiction with care and convincingly argues that we can extend this mode of being as ethical. If we approached the world with the care and attention we do characters in a book, we would be excercising a instinctively human morality. Beautifully written -- it can change your outlook on how we should see ourselves and the world.

required reading

This collection of essays is not only a first-rate work in the philosophy of literature, but it goes beyond the limits of that heading to sound out the philosophical implications of the literary works themselves. It begins by raising the question, so often unhappily answered without analysis, of what form of writing is most hospitable to the raising of philosophical questions. The answer, developed over the course of the essays, is that "literary" authors often present a more intricate and acute consideration of philosophical issues, especially those pertaining to human beings as emotional and moral agents; and this implies a thorough critique of not only the writing style most fashionable in philosophy but also the writers most often studied by those who consider themselves philosophers. A number of the essays assume familiarity with works by, for example, James, Proust, and Beckett, while others are more general in their scope. Anyone who feels that important philosophical issues are raised in literary texts, which deserve a careful, intelligent, and non-formulaic (or "theoretical") reading, ought to read this book. Anyone who has the suspicion that love is something that we ought to try to understand in all of its complexity and fullness, ought to read it as well. It might just restore your faith in novels, in philosophy, and in the human heart striving to understand itself.