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People have a deep need to be legislators, and the idea of autonomy has become very precious.

Martha C. Nussbaum

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Martha C. Nussbaum
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More quotes by Martha C. Nussbaum

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Today, I think, the state of philosophizing about democracy is very healthy. It bridges political science and philosophy, as it should.
Martha C. Nussbaum
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Nudity quickly becomes unremarkable when generally practiced.
Martha C. Nussbaum
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When I came to Harvard, there were no tenured women except one, who was in a chair reserved for a woman. It's still an uphill battle, and I encountered great sexism in parts of my career, but I have to say that things are a lot better than they used to be. There are many women today doing wonderful work all over the academy.
Martha C. Nussbaum
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There's a gap in perceptions between women and men. Women feel much freer than they did, but still, when alcohol is involved, especially, there's a lot of sexual assault, and a lot of confusion about that. So, we need to focus a lot more on what consent is and on the importance of affirmative consent.
Martha C. Nussbaum
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Notice that all the traditional things philosophers do, looking for validity and soundness, promote civic friendship. That sounds pretty pie in the sky, yes, but I actually believe it.
Martha C. Nussbaum
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Choice matters. You might have the opportunity to eat a nutritious diet, though you might choose to eat a lousy diet. What matters is the opportunity.
Martha C. Nussbaum
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But the life that no longer trust another human being and no longer forms ties to the political community is not a human life any longer.
Martha C. Nussbaum
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The great tragedy in the new feminist theory in America is the loss of a sense of public commitment.... Hungry women are not fed by this, battered women are not sheltered by it, raped women do not find justice in it, gays and lesbians do not achieve legal protections through it.
Martha C. Nussbaum
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Singapore and China, which don't want to encourage democratic citizenship, are expanding their humanities curricula. These reforms are all about developing a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship.
Martha C. Nussbaum
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Our emotional life maps our incompleteness: A creature without any needs would never have reasons for fear, or grief, or hope, or anger.
Martha C. Nussbaum
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The great philosophers of the past who wrote so beautifully - Rousseau, John Stuart Mill - had to write beautifully because they had to sell their work to journals. They had to sell books to the general public because they could not hold positions in universities. Mill was an atheist, and, therefore, could not hold a position in a university.
Martha C. Nussbaum
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I think the imagination helps us move out of the purely oppositional mentality and see the world in a richer and more variegated way.
Martha C. Nussbaum
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People don't just want to feel satisfied. They actually want to act.
Martha C. Nussbaum
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If you really do want to increase women's status, you could focus on just that, but you'd probably better focus also on women's education. Access to artificial contraception, I would say, is also a very important determinant of women's status.
Martha C. Nussbaum
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I think we need government to play a part in having a health policy that makes nursing care available for the increasing numbers who are going to need it.
Martha C. Nussbaum
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Knowledge is no guarantee of good behavior, but ignorance is a virtual guarantee of bad behavior.
Martha C. Nussbaum
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When a profession is protected by academic freedom and tenure, it tends to turn inward. To a large extent that's good.
Martha C. Nussbaum
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TV has a lot of problems, but I think the Internet and social media have a lot more. Under the cover of anonymity people say the most vicious things.
Martha C. Nussbaum
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In our swamp of media sensationalism and group-speak, BOSTON REVIEW stands out as a bold voice for reason and argument, one of the very, very few places that offers intelligence, integrity, and variety.
Martha C. Nussbaum
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Business leaders love the humanities because they know that to innovate you need more than rote knowledge. You need a trained imagination.
Martha C. Nussbaum