Cultivating Humanity: A Classical Defense Of Reform In Liberal Education

While reading chapter three Nussbaum’s book, Cultivating Humanity: A Classical Defense of Reform in Liberal Education, I noticed several connections to Brooks’ article, When Beauty Strikes. In many ways, Nussbaum agrees with Brooks’ argument about the power of beauty in art, or in this case literature. Like Brooks, Nussbaum argues that social change can come about through art. She first makes this claim on page 94 when she writes, “…the artistic form makes its spectator perceive, for a time, the invisible people of their world—at least a beginning of social justice” [emphasis mine]. This is where her argument separates from Brooks’. While he argues that it is art itself that makes the change, Nussbaum argues it is only the beginning, and I