To be a good human being is to have a kind of openness to the world, an ability to trust uncertain things beyond your own control.
Philosophers
Martha Nussbaum
Leading American ethicist and classicist (1947- ), Distinguished Service Professor at Chicago. Co-architect with Amartya Sen of the capability approach; recipient of the Kyoto Prize (2016) and Holberg Prize (2021).
View this figure's profile
Source: The Fragility of Goodness (Cambridge University Press, 1986)Verified
Martha Nussbaum's Other Quotes
Compassion is the basic social emotion.
The capabilities approach starts not from a hypothetical state of nature but from the question: what does a life worthy of human dignity require?
We should not feel pity for those who suffer; we should feel compassion, which involves regarding their well-being as our own concern.