ABSTRACT
In her book Love’s Knowledge Martha Nussbaum’s main thesis is that there is no sharp distinction between literary criticism and philosophy. Ms Nussbaum, a professor of philosophy and classics at Brown University, criticises academic philosophers for not writing about literature-and-philosophy. Nussbaum says novels teach important moral lessons. Nussbaum also says novels deal with particularities rather than with universal laws. But she does not consider the relation between particularities and universal laws in a more general manner for that would take her away from literature-and-philosophy back into philosophy proper. Philosophy is rather a macho subject, and macho types perhaps feel that love and literature are just sissy. Philosophers might also hold the view, be it true or false, that much of what is actually published on literature-and-philosophy is blah. Nussbaum is not saying that philosophers ignore aesthetics, for aesthetic theory is an element in traditional philosophy courses.
