How do people form opinions?
How do they reason their way through the world? What influences them? 9
Questions is an ongoing series that explores the intellectual habits of the
most interesting thinkers in the world.
This week, Martha Nussbaum —
philosopher, author, and professor of law and ethics at the University of
Chicago — answers our questions.
1.
What’s the first piece of media you consume
every day?
2.
The Chicago Tribune and
the New York Times, both papers, delivered to my door each day.
3.
Name a writer or publication you disagree
with but still read.
4.
This strikes me as the most hilarious question,
given that I’m a philosopher. Philosophy is all about respectful disagreement,
and learning from disagreement. No decent philosopher simply parrots some other
philosopher, so there must be disagreements somewhere in every case.
I disagree less
with J.S. Mill than with any other major philosopher, but I still disagree with
Mill a good deal. Aristotle is insightful on some matters, not so insightful on
others. As for Plato, Kant, Bentham, Sidgwick, and Rawls, my disagreements are
larger, but still compatible with thinking that in some very major ways they
were on the right track. I would not say that about Lord Devlin or James Fitzjames
Stephen, but I still teach both, in order to learn from their arguments.
If I didn’t
disagree with a philosopher it would hardly be worth engaging with him or her,
because there would be nothing to learn.
5.
Who is the person who has most influenced the
way you think?
6.
Probably my parents, but in complicated ways
(frequently involving opposition and reaction), and only a good analyst could
know how and how far. If you mean later intellectual influences, so many:
Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristotle, Lucretius, Seneca, Adam Smith,
Rousseau, Kant, J.S. Mill, Rawls, Bernard Williams, Donald Winnicott.
7.
When was the last time you changed your mind
about something?
8.
In November I realized that there was a major
defect in my account of emotions that meant that I had to write a new book
showing the primary role of fear, and how fear infects all the other emotions.
So that’s the most recent large change.
9.
What’s your worst intellectual habit?
10.
I am pretty happy with my habits. I do a lot of
work, I teach a lot, I am a good colleague, and I have plenty of time for the
people I love. So the balance seems right. It used to be more difficult to find
this balance: In particular I used to be unsure how much to travel for
conferences and lectures. Now I have very firm rules: No lecturing in July or
August, and no international travel during teaching weeks. No canceled classes,
and at most one or two domestic trips per month.
So it’s only if
something arrives by surprise that I feel overbooked, as, for example, the Kyoto
Prize requires four weeks of lecturing for the Inamori Foundation. Every
morning before I get up I read my email on my phone, and am delighted if I can
turn down three or four invitations (those from abroad often arrive overnight)
before I even get up. This is a delightful habit that starts my day on the
right footing.
11.
What inspires you to learn?
12.
Happiness and zest.
13.
What do you need to believe in order to get
through the day?
14.
I find this question alien. It never occurs to
me to ask whether I will get through the day. I have fun every day. I guess at
times, when I have too many committee meetings or too many exams to grade, I do
need to believe that I will find time to write pretty soon. But those times are
rare.
15.
What’s a view that you hold but can’t defend?
16.
That I will live to be over 100.
17.
What book have you recommended the most?
18.
Well most of the books that I love are
well-known, so I don’t need to recommend them. However, books by the great
founders of India are not read often enough, apart from Gandhi’s autobiography,
which is well-known. So I do find myself recommending Jawaharlal Nehru’s The Discovery
of India and B.R. Ambedkar’s Annihilation of Caste, two masterpieces
that most Americans have not read.
You can read last week’s edition of 9 questions with Whitney
Cummings here.
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