Martha Nussbaum Women And Cultural Universals Analysis

Martha Nussbaum is an American philosopher who published “Women and Cultural Universals”. Focusing on specifically page twenty-nine through thirty-four and then pages thirty-nine through forty-three paragraph one from “Women and Cultural Universals” Then, comparing Karl Marx to Nussbaum’s capabilities theory. Karl Marx’s critique is consistent with Nussbaum’s capabilities theory, while solutions that Nussbaum proposes are also consistent with the solutions and alternatives Marx offers. Nussbaum creates a list of capabilities that are fundamental abilities that should be open to both men and women. It is up to each individual to decide whether to act upon them, how they act upon them, and to what extent they act upon them. Karl Marx, believed …show more content…
“For we do not want politics to take mere survival as its goal; we want to describe a life in which dignity of the human being is not violated by hunger or fear or the absence of opportunity” (40). Nussbaum compares this statement directly to Karl Marx’s idea. This relates to Marx when he used an Aristotelian notion of function to describe the difference between animal use of things and the human use. Nussbaum’s Central Human Functional Capabilities should be possessed by every citizen, no matter what they have or decide to pursue in their lifetime. The Central Human Functional Capabilities includes the following: life, bodily health and integrity, bodily integrity, senses, imagination, thought, emotions, practical reason, affiliation, other species, play, and control over one’s environment. Nussbaum believes that if any human life is lacking any one of these capabilities, they are falling short of a fully good human …show more content…
Each of their solutions and alternatives also are consistent. Martha Nussbaum see that women are struggling all around the world in every culture and tradition. Even in some of these cultures the women see that the way that they are treated is right and natural because it has been going on for so long. Women are seen as property, women are seen as the lower class when compared to men. They are oppressed in so many different ways. Nussbaum’s capabilities theory was created to show the solution to women being oppressed and a way to make sure every human knows what their fundamental capabilities are in order to live a fully happy life. Nussbaum believes that every human has the right to life, health, integrity, imagination, thought, emotions, practical reason, affiliation, and other species. No human should be denied any of these capabilities. Karl Marx also believed that humans should not be oppressed by the government or other individuals and provides solutions to eliminate social classes and private property so that another human is not above just because of the things that they own. Nussbaum and Marx provide humans with a way to try and attempt to get rid of the inequality in our current