A review by lukescalone
Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities by Martha C. Nussbaum
4.0
Interesting, brief text on the importance of the humanities from the perspective of democratic citizenship. Nussbaum argues that everyone in liberal democracies should be taught the humanities because they foster a number of skills critical to citizenship: empathy with different experiences from one's own, connecting abstract ideas to lived realities, pushing back against exclusion, bringing multiple perspectives to the conversation, etc.
I'm not sure that this book will convince anyone who doesn't already believe in these things, but it's concise and gets to the point rapidly. Although written more than ten years ago, a lot of what's written here still rings true. I found particularly interesting Nussbaum's examination of Rabindranath Tagore's teaching philosophy, where he uses culture to teach life skills.
I'm not sure that this book will convince anyone who doesn't already believe in these things, but it's concise and gets to the point rapidly. Although written more than ten years ago, a lot of what's written here still rings true. I found particularly interesting Nussbaum's examination of Rabindranath Tagore's teaching philosophy, where he uses culture to teach life skills.