A Study On Martha C.Nussbaum’s Theory Of Justice

At the end of 1950s, the publication of Anscombe’s Modern Moral Philosophy marked the rising of the revival movement of contemporary virtue ethics. Philosophers engaged in that movement that tried to reestablish the leading role of virtue ethics originating from ancient Greece through criticizing utilitarianism and deontology. Martha Nussbaum’ theory of justice gained inspiration, emerged and developed from that background. Draw supporting materials from Poetic Justice:The Literary Imagination and Public Life, Frontiers of Justice,Creating Capability,Justice Emotion,this paper explores the background, connotations, applications and evaluations of Martha Nussbaum’ justice theory to demonstrate the development course of criticism and construction of Martha Nussbaum’ thought.Martha Nussbaum constructed her justice theory on basis of the criticism on utilitarianism. Professor Nussbaum analyzed the rational model of utilitarianism in economics. Therefore, he proposed poetic justice based on imagination and emotion despite the vulnerability of poetic justice due to doubts about how to imagine and how to make good use of imagination. Nussbaum admitted the vulnerability of imagination’s power, and she considered empathic imagination as a supplement to rule-based governance rather than a substitute. Nussbaum discovered that contract theory, especially Rawls’justice theory, is currently the most powerful existing justice theory. However, Rawls’theory encountered a dilemma when it came to issues including the disabled people waiting for the earliest social protection, transnational justice and animal rights. On basis of extending the capability approach of Amartya Sen, Nussbaum constructed the theory frame.The transition is not simple replacement of poetic justice, because capability theroy of justice also needs poetic justice’s emotion to supplement and improve itself. Capabillity theroy of justice and poetic justice are interrelated to promote the development of justice theory, and thus corresponding to and solving the realistic problems in modern times. Nussbaum’s justice theory propelled the development of contemporary virtue ethics and is of great significance in solving social justice issues and ethic problems in high-tech sector.