ABSTRACT
Martha Nussbaum's version of the capabilities approach is a theory of social welfare that she developed out of Aristotle's theory of living "the good life", out of Aristotle's advocacy for redistribution, and out of Amartya Sen's capability approach. Nussbaum's reasoning seems to be that if a constitution is best, the state orders affairs so that anyone "might do best and live a flourishing life," and as part of that arrangement, that state distributes to its citizens goods they need to accomplish that. Nussbaum acknowledges that in some texts in Politics vii Aristotle calls for excluding farmers or labourers from citizenship, but she argues that those texts express Platonic influence. Human functioning for Nussbaum is concerned with such states as: "Being able to have good health," "having opportunities for sexual satisfaction," or "Being able to laugh, to play, to enjoy recreational activities.".
