Astudy Of Martha Nussbaum’s Thought Of Poetic Justice

Justice is an ancient and new topic. People began to think about how to make socialfairness and justice since men had the human society. The dream of seeking anappropriate standard of justice runs through the human society. At all times and in allcountries, the philosophers and scholars are researching on the problem of justice and leftmany insights about the standard of justice.The researchers focus on the problem of justice from the perspective of rationalityin Western society. However, Martha Nussbaum, the contemporary famous femalephilosopher, found that there are some problems in achieving justice simply relying onrationality way. She worried that some rigid social sciences in contemporary society, theutilitarian cost-effect analysis in particular,try to establish the great mansion of justicefrom the perspective of factuality and rationality. Therefore, in the “Poetic Justice”, sheused the “Hard Times”,one of novel of Dickens, as the background material to criticizethe shortcomings of the standard of justice in utilitarianism and put forward "PoeticJustice" thought, which is a new standard of justice constructed on the basis of literatureimagination and emotions. She hoped to use the power of literature imagination andemotions to assist the social institution and legal system to ensure the realization ofjustice.The Poetic Justice puts forward the new approach for us to study the problem ofsocial justice.Firstly, the article briefly describes Nussbaum’s life and philosophical thoughts;then analyzes the theoretical basis of “Poetic Justice” thought and draws forth somedeep questions. Secondly, the author elaborates the theoretical framework of “PoeticJustice” from three respects. Thirdly, the thesis evaluates Nussbaum’s thought from tworespects: its limitations and soundness to reveal the theoretical value and practicalsignificance.