Summary Of Martha Nussbaum's Not For Profit: Why Democracy Needs The Humanities

937 Words4 Pages

Martha Nussbaum has experiences in writing about education related topics such as liberal education, already publishing a book called „Cultivating Humanity”. However her inspiration to write her book entitled “Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities” came from a person of the Spencer Foundation named Mike McPherson but also because of the fact that she was resident fellow at the foundation. In addition to this, her association with the Cambridge school in Weston, Massachusetts helped her by giving her optimism in what type of education she wanted to defend in her book. ( xii ) The title seems to be chosen just in perfect harmony with the subject. Even though the arts education is not metioned in it, by reading the book it will make sense why Nussbaum decided to just place the word humanities in the title. In adition to this, from my point of view the title is very well chosen …show more content…

In her book entitled „Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities” , Martha Nussbaum deals with topics regarding education all over the world but her main focus is on the United States and India, places that she has better knowledge of. For that reason, her main thesis is that by declining the study of the humanities the world can end up with some „useful profit makers rather than thoughtful citizens.” (142)
Even though people want to replace the arts education and humanities with technology or technology education, Nussbaum does not say that the arts and humanities are neglected by individuals. She mostly thinks that they are somewhat feared because for example, humanities at the same time with art can heighten one’s creativity and imagination but as well as his or hers compassion. And this also makes me think that she wants to make people aware that a society