Martha Nussbaum uses a very interesting method of doing philosophical reflection. She does not write abstract pieces, but rather interacts with the dramatic and narrative texts of the classical period and also the modern novel. Literature, in other words.
She does so because 'speculative prose' is not the mode best suited to ethical thinking - something she says the Greeks recognised. This is not just a matter of form either: the choice that Plato made not to write in a literary form was a statement of what he thought he was doing as a philosopher.
As she writes:
Our Anglo-American philosophical tradition has tended to assume that the ethical text should, in the process of inquiry, converse with the intellect alone; it should not make its appeal to the emotions, feeligs, and sensory responses. Plato explicitly argues that ethical learning must proceed by seperating the intellect from our other merely human parts...The conversation we have with a work of tragic poetry is not like this. Our cognitive activity, as we explore the ethical conception embodied in the text, centrally involves emotional response. We discover what we think about these events partly by noticing how we fell; our investigation of our emotional geography is a major part of our search for self-knowledge.
I think what she says here could apply to much theological thinking, which proceeds as if the intellect must be seperated from our other merely human parts... And yet the major texts of Christianity - ie the Bible - do not come to us in that form... What would theology look like if it proceeded by a more Nussbaumian method?
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It reminds me of something that Fergus Kerr said, in his book on Wittgenstein: "That considering the execution of an innocent man is a more promising starting point for sustaining Christian theology than proving that God exists might be one unsurprising conclusion" [flowing from W's philosophy]. I'm glad you're looking at Nussbaum; I was writing something a little related last week (here)
ah... well I was put onto Nussbaum by reading Kerr - so the circle is complete!
No, she is countering Plato's separation of the intellect from the emotions.
What would theology look like if it proceeded by a more Nussbaumian method?
"The Pilgrim's Progress" seems to fit the mold. Also some of Lewis - especially "The Screwtape Letters" and "The Great Divorce".
There was once a little theology. She was lost and alone. At school, the older kids used to pick on her: philosophy, rhetoric and mathematics. She envied them their cool detchment. She wanted to be just like them. So she tried picking on some kids younger than her: literature, history. She liked it. It made her feel more like the older kids. Maybe they would let her into their gang now that she had grown up?
We discover what we think about these events partly by noticing how we fell
Didn't realise Nussbaum believes in the Fall... :-)
I was listening to Radio National this morning, and there was a brief lecture by a scientist (i can't recall his name) about religion and science, in particular Intelligent Design. I don't really know a lot about this debate and both sides tend to frustrate me so I usually stick my head in the sand. But basically he put forward Richard Dawkins' idea of "memes", saying that religion is a cultural idea that has had a lot of currency and has been able to adapt and evolve like genes, but religion is losing environments to which it can adapt and will soon die out. His basic point was that we created God in our image and that if there is a God he is an evil designer rather than an intelligent one because the prostate is poorly designed.
After all this I was feeling a little frustrated and thinking of different ways that one could respond to these fairly common arguments, I mean, I have had drunk people at parties make the same arguements just with more slurring and less scientific jargon.
I think that a response more in the form of a narrative would cut through to the issues, rather than trying to dress theology in scientific clothes. The gospel narrative for instance is a good response to the idea that we created God in our image and that God doesn't care about evil.
Does Kierkegaard do theology/philosophy in the Nussbaumian method?
get off the grass, lofty Byron!!
The K-man probably does, you know. It is just that I can't understand him at all!
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