ABSTRACT
Martha Nussbaum is a remarkably broad and prolifi c philosopher (cf. Harpham 2002). As is the case with Hampton, not all of her oeuvre directly concerns feminism.1 Because these chapters confi ne themselves to those of her works that do, their review of Nussbaum’s writings does not reach back before the 1990s, for most of her publications prior to that were devoted to ancient philosophy, with special reference to Aristotle. Her fi rst book, Th e Fragility of Goodness: Luck and Ethics in Greek Tragedy and Philosophy, was published in 1986. She made forays in the 1970s and 1980s into the nexus between literature and moral philosophy, culminating in her 1990 work Love’s Knowledge: Essays on Philosophy and Literature. Nussbaum’s publication record suggests that her interest in feminism took a quantum leap with her involvement in the World Institute for Development Economics Research (WIDER).2 In 1993 she coedited, and contributed to, a book on development economics entitled Th e Quality of Life and two years later coedited, and contributed two chapters to, another WIDER volume on Women, Culture, and Development: A Study of Human Capabilities. Nussbaum’s fi rst major feminist work, Sex and Social Justice (SSJ), appeared in 1999. It was followed a year later by Women and Human Development: Th e Capabilities Approach (WHD). One important consequence of the way Nussbaum’s feminism has developed is that it did not begin with the problems facing women in liberal societies and then confront the challenge of extending her thinking to women in quite diff erent political, economic, social and cultural milieux. Nussbaum’s approach to feminism was, ab
initio, one that strove to take the condition of women all around the world into consideration.3
