Martha Nussbaum

Nussbaum is one of the principal contemporary scholars of ancient Greek philosophy; her work has consistently engaged Aristotle and Plato as live philosophical resources rather than as historical curiosities.

"The Greek tragedians knew, and Aristotle knew, that the good human life is one in which luck plays an ineliminable role." (The Fragility of Goodness)

Nussbaum's capabilities approach is consequentialist-pragmatic in its evaluation of policies by their actual effects on human flourishing.

"What are people actually able to do and to be? This question must guide our political evaluations." (Women and Human Development)

Nussbaum's engagement with religious traditions — Reform Judaism in her own conversion, Hindu and Buddhist ethical traditions in her cross-cultural work — is sympathetic-rational in the liberal-theological mode.

"I converted to Reform Judaism not as a flight from reason but as a way of joining a tradition that grounds reason in narrative." (1999 essay)

Nussbaum's "The Therapy of Desire" is a major contemporary engagement with Hellenistic ethical traditions including Stoicism, even where she ultimately argues against the Stoic suppression of emotion.

"The Stoic project of becoming invulnerable through the suppression of emotion is one I admire and reject." (The Therapy of Desire)

Nussbaum has engaged Epicurean and Lucretian thought as resources for contemporary philosophy of death and human finitude; The Therapy of Desire treats Epicurus seriously.

"Epicurus' arguments against fearing death are among the most powerful ever made; whether they succeed is another matter." (The Therapy of Desire)