About the Book
This volume collects the notable published book reviews of Martha C. Nussbaum, an acclaimed philosopher who is also a professor of law and a public intellectual. Her academic work focuses on questions of moral and political philosophy and on the nature of the emotions. But over the past 25 years she has also written many book reviews for a general public, in periodicals such as The New Republic and The New York Review of Books. Dating from 1986
to the present, these essays engage, constructively and also critically, with authors like Roger Scruton, Allan Bloom, Charles Taylor, Judith Butler, Richard Posner, Catharine MacKinnon, Susan Moller Okin, and other
prominent intellectuals of our time. Throughout, her views defy ideological predictability, heralding valuable work from little-known sources, deftly criticizing where criticism is due, and generally providing a compelling picture of how philosophy in the Socratic tradition can engage with broad social concerns. For this volume, Nussbaum provides an intriguing introduction that explains her selection and provides her view of the role of the public philosopher.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
1. "Women's Lot, " review of Jane Roland Martin, Reclaiming a Conversation: The Ideal of the Educated Woman, The New York Review of Books, January 30, 1986.
2. "Sex in the Head," review of Roger Scruton, Sexual Desire: A Moral Philosophy of the Erotic, The New York Review of Books, December 18, 1986.
3. "Undemocratic Vistas," review of Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind: How Higher Education Has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today's Students, The New York Review of Books, November 5, 1987.
4. "Recoiling from Reason," review of Alasdair MacIntyre, Whose Justice? Which Rationality,The New York Review of Books, December 7, 1989.
5. "The Bondage and Freedom of Eros," Review of David Halperin, One Hundred Years of Homosexuality and Other Essays on Greek Love and John J. Winkler, The Constraints of Desire: The Anthropology of Sex and Gender in Greece, The Times Literary Supplement, June 1990.
6. "Our Pasts, Ourselves," review of Charles Taylor, Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity, The New Republic, April 9, 1990.
7. "The Chill of Virtue," review of Gregory Vlastos, Socrates, Ironist and Moral Philosopher, The New Republic, September 15,1991.
8. "Venus in Robes," review of Richard Posner, Sex and Reason, The New Republic, April 20, 1992.
9. "Justice for Women!", review of Susan Moller Okin, Justice, Gender, and the Family, The New York Review of Books, October 8, 1992.
10. "Divided We Stand," review of William Bennett, The Book of Virtues, The New Republic, December 1993.
11. "Looking Good, Being Good," review of Anne Hollander, Sex and Suits: The Evolution of Modern Dress (and two other books), The New Republic, January 2, 1995.
12. "Feminists and Philosophy," review of Louise B. Antony and Charlotte Witt, eds., A Mind of One's Own: Feminist Essays on Reason and Objectivity, The New York Review of Books, October 20, 1994. Letters and Reply, April 6, 1995.
13. "Unlocal Hero," review of Kristen Renwick Monroe, The Heart of Altruism: Perceptions of a Common Humanity and Tzvetan Todorov, Facing the Extreme: Moral Life in the Concentration Camps, The New Republic, October 28, 1996.
14. "Foul Play," review of William Ian Miller, The Anatomy of Disgust, The New Republic, November 17, 1997.
15. "If Oxfam Ran the World," review of Peter Unger, Living High and Letting Die: Our Illusion of Innocence, The London Review of Books, September 4, 1997. Letters and Reply, October 2, 1997.
16. "The Professor of Parody," review of four books by Judith Butler, The New Republic February 22, 1999. Letters and Reply, April 19, 1999.
17. "Experiments in Living," review of Michael Warner, The Trouble With Normal: Sex, Politics, and the Ethics of Queer Life, The New Republic, January 3, 2000.
18. Review of Allen Buchanan, Dan W. Brock, Norman Daniels, and Daniel Wikler, From Chance to Choice; Genetics and Justice, The New Republic, December 4, 2000.
19. "Disabled Lives: Who Cares?", review of Eva Feder Kittay, Love's Labor: Essays on Women, Equality, and Dependency; Michael Bérubé, Life As We Know It: A Father, a Family, and an Exceptional Child; and Joan Williams, Unbending Gender: Why Family and Work Conflict and What to Do About It. The New York Review of Books January 11, 2001.
20. "When She Was Good," review of Peter J. Conradi, Iris Murdoch: A Life, The New Republic January 7, 2002.
21. "Dr. True Self," review of F. Robert Rodman, Winnicott: Life and Work, The New Republic October 27, 2003.
22. "For Once Clear to See," review of Mary Kinzie, Drift, Poetry 183 (January 2004), 235-38.
23. "The Founder," review of Judith M. Brown, Nehru: A Political Life and Shashi Tharoor, Nehru: The Invention of India, The New Republic, February 14, 2005.
24. "Epistemology of the Closet," review of Bart Schultz, Henry Sidgwick: The Eye of the Universe, The Nation, June 6, 2005.
25. "The Prohibition Era," review of Kenji Yoshino, Covering: The Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights, The New Republic, March 20, 2006.
26. "Man Overboard," review of Harvey C. Mansfield, Manliness, The New Republic, June 26, 2006.
27. "Legal Weapon," review of Catharine A. MacKinnon, Are Women Human? And Other International Dialogues. The Nation, July 31/August 7, 2006.
28. Review of Martha Alter Chen, Perpetual Mourning: Widowhood in Rural India; Martha Alter Chen, wed., Widows in India: Social Neglect and Public Action; Deepa Mehta, Water (film); Bapsi Sidhwa, Water: A Novel; Devyani Saltzman, Shooting Water: A memoir of Second Chances, Family, and Filmmaking. Unpublished, written late 2006.
29. "Texts for Torturers," review of Philip Zimbardo, The Lucifer Effect, The Times Literary Supplement, October 19, 2007.
30. "Stages of Thought," review of A. D. Nuttall, Shakespeare the Thinker, Colin McGinn, Shakespeare's Philosophy: Discovering the Meaning Behind the Plays, and Tzachi Zamir, Double Vision: Moral Philosophy and Shakespearean Drama, The New Republic, May 7, 2008.
31. "The Passion Fashion," review of Cristina Nehring, A Vindication of Love: Reclaiming Romance for the Twenty-First Century, The New Republic, September 23, 2009.
32. "Becky, Tess, and Moll," review of Nicola Lacey, Women, Crime, and Character: From Moll Flanders to Tess of the D'Urbervilles, The Times Literary Supplement, September 18, 2009.
33. "Examined Life (Inheriting Socrates)," review of Astra Taylor, The Examined Life (film), The Point 2 (winter 2010).
34. "Representative Woman," review of Christine Stansell, The Feminist Promise: 1792 to the Present, The Nation, October 25, 2010.
35. review of Stefan Collni, That's Offensive!, The New Statesman March 2011.
About the Author :
Martha C. Nussbaum is Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago. She is the author of Love's Knowledge, Sex and Social Justice, Animal Rights (edited with Cass Sunstein), and From Disgust to Humanitiy, among many.
Review :
"This kind of serious critical engagement is important, and Martha does it with great power. The reviews also cover a wide range: they show Martha's own remarkable breadth, but also the range of subjects on which a serious and imaginative philosopher has something important to contribute." -- Joshua Cohen, Stanford University
