Not for Profit
Nussbaum's 2010 'Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities'
Tradition: Capabilities approach / liberal-democratic political philosophy / philosophy of education
Nussbaum's 2010 'Not for Profit' — democracy requires the humanities, not just STEM-instrumental education
Published by Princeton University Press in 2010 in the Public Square series (with a substantially expanded second edition in 2016 responding to events in the intervening years), 'Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities' is Nussbaum's accessible defence of liberal humanistic education against the global trend toward economically-instrumentalist higher education. The book argues that democratic citizenship requires three capacities the humanities are uniquely positioned to cultivate: (1) critical thinking — the Socratic capacity to examine one's own assumptions and to engage with reasoned argument across difference; (2) the global perspective — the ability to imagine the position of others (people of other classes, religions, nationalities, races, sexual orientations), an ability Nussbaum connects directly to Aristotelian-civic-republican thinking and to her capabilities-approach work on global development; and (3) the cultivated imagination — the empathetic-imaginative capacity to inhabit the standpoint of others, cultivated specifically through literature, theatre, and the arts. Against the global push toward STEM-only education focused on producing economically productive workers, Nussbaum argues that democracy itself is endangered when these capacities are no longer cultivated. The book draws on Nussbaum's own teaching at Chicago, her work with Indian and South Asian universities, and the broader international debate about higher-education priorities. The Press's 'Public Square' series intends books that bring academic philosophical work to a wide public; 'Not for Profit' is one of the most successful titles in that series, widely read by university administrators, policy-makers, and the broader educated public.
Author
Editions cited
- Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities (Princeton University Press, 2010)
- Second edition with new preface (Princeton, 2016)
- Critical context: Anthony T. Kronman, Education's End (Yale, 2007); William Deresiewicz, Excellent Sheep (Free Press, 2014); Stefan Collini, What Are Universities For? (Penguin, 2012)
School Embodiments
Major contemporary philosophy-of-education work.
"Democracy requires the humanities." (Not for Profit, ch. 1)
Capabilities-approach background — education for full human capability.
"Education must develop the central capabilities." (Not for Profit, ch. 2)
Defining liberal-democratic argument.
"Liberal democracy depends on the humanities-trained citizen." (Not for Profit, ch. 1)
Aristotelian-virtue framework for education.
"Cultivating the virtues of the citizen." (Not for Profit)
Critical-theoretical analysis of education's economic instrumentalisation.
"The crisis of profit-driven education." (Not for Profit, ch. 1)
Internal Tensions
Defining contemporary defence of liberal humanistic education. Continuously cited in debates over university priorities, the value of the humanities, the role of STEM in higher education, and the relations between economic productivity and democratic citizenship.
I. Time
2010 first edition; 2016 expanded second edition. Nussbaum was 63 at first publication, with her major systematic philosophical works (Upheavals of Thought, Frontiers of Justice, Creating Capabilities) already published.
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II. Space
Chicago (Nussbaum's University of Chicago appointment since 1995) and her international academic engagement (especially with Indian universities through the SEWA work and the Nehru Centre lectures).
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III. Matter
Short public-philosophical monograph (~190 pages first ed.; ~230 pages second ed.). Form is essay-monographic with seven chapters.
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IV. Observer
Late Nussbaum. The observer is the philosopher whose own university-teaching experience and international-university engagement inform the argument.
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V. Energy
Public-philosophical-defending energies. The book is the most direct of Nussbaum's public-policy interventions, addressed to university administrators, policy-makers, and the broader educated public rather than primarily to other philosophers.
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VI. Information
Single short book. The three-capacities framework (critical thinking / global perspective / cultivated imagination) is the central informational structure; case studies of universities in the US, India, and Europe illustrate the argument.
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Personas that cite this work
Personas with the nearest attribute fingerprint
Historical figures whose own classification on the same six-dimensional grid lands closest to this work's. Computed by attribute-agreement on coordinates both address.
Computed school proximity
The work's attribute fingerprint scored against all schools using the same quiz scorer. Useful as a sanity check on the hand-curated embodiments above.
How Not for Profit resolves each dilemma
51 resolved positions across 4 dimensions, including 3 distinctive where the majority of schools go the other way · 6 unaligned.
Each dimension is sorted so minority positions come first. Mainstream positions are folded into an expandable list.
Time · 9 dilemmas · 3 distinctive
Persistence, the future, and the direction of becoming.