Martha Nussbaum

Martha Nussbaum is an American philosopher who draws on ancient Greek philosophy, particularly Aristotle, to address issues of justice, emotion, and human flourishing. Her capabilities approach, developed with Amartya Sen, has been widely applied in global development and gender justice.

Nussbaum's work spans classical scholarship, literary theory, and applied ethics. Her defence of the emotions as forms of evaluative cognition in Upheavals of Thought challenged the rationalist tradition's denigration of feeling, and her Fragility of Goodness explored how Greek tragedy illuminates the vulnerability of the good life to fortune.