Nussbaum Txt

8/10/2019 Nussbaum Txt

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Welcome to the Martha Nussbaum symposium.

My name is Aristides Hatzis, I am a professor at the University of Athens and I will

be the chairperson this evening.

I was planning to present the work of the three distinguished participants. However,

given the time limit, I am going to be very brief.

This is the first time a Martha Nussbaum symposium is organized. It was the

initiative of the organizing committee that was made possible with the kind help of

our generous sponsors. I feel very honored to be a part of this inaugural Martha

Nussbaum lecture. As you already know HDCA has decided to organize a Martha

Nussbaum lecture every two years.

I think it was 18 or 19 years ago, I was working on my Ph.D. thesis at the University

of Chicago when I learnt that Martha Nussbaum will join the faculty. I was really

excited with the news and also very disappointed because I had already finished my

coursework. I still remember the first time I saw her talking to my favorite professor

David Strauss next to my carrel. She was larger than life.

I suppose you are all familiar with the importance of her work. She is one of the

leading and most influential contemporary philosophers but she is also a public

intellectual of the highest caliber and quality.

She is so prolific I cant even list the titles of her most important books. I prefer to

mention only my three favorite books:

Sex and Social Justicepublished in 1999 changed the way I see not only gender

relations but also the extremely important issue of LGBT rights. Please keep in mind

that the first Nussbaum text I read was the debate with John Finnis which was


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Prof. Pettits work in political philosophy is multifaceted but his most important

contribution is his reclaiming of a long tradition in political theory. Pettits work was

instrumental for the reinterpretation of the classical republican tradition but mostlyfor the development of the modern civic republicanism. Civic republicanism is a

political ideology with many similarities with modern liberalism but also with some

very important differences.

The most important difference is the way it treats liberty, freedom. For Pettit freedom

is not the absence of interference. Freedom should be conceived more broadly, as

non-domination.

For Philip non-domination is a position where no one can interfere arbitrarily in your

affairs. For this to be possible an elaborate institutional framework is necessary, i.e.

institutions which can realistically deter potential arbitrary interference from the

state of powerful corporate entities.

Philip is a prolific author, he has written extensively. I believe that this book is the

book you should definitely read to understand his ideas: Republicanism: A Theory of

Freedom and Government.

As a classical liberal myself I found the book both fascinating and disturbing. Philip

and I share the same intellectual parents, we have the same heroes: Harrington,

Montesquieu, Jefferson and most importantly Madison. However we see their ideas

through a different lens. By reading Pettit I realized the distortions that a liberal

conception of freedom might entail. He helped me to acknowledge a gap in classical

liberal thinking concerning the material preconditions of freedom. So I am really

looking forward to read his new book on freedom and of course to attend tonights

lecture with the most promising titleA Brief History of Liberty And Its Lessons.


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Finally, Professor Mozaffar Qizilbash, an economist but also a distinguished scholar

in economics and philosophy will comment on Philips lecture.

Mozaffars research record is impressive with contributions to topics that are relevantto both economics and philosophy, like capability and well-being, rationality,

incommensurability, and utilitarianism. He is also a leading scholar in development

economics with published work on poverty, human development, sustainable

development and corruption.

As you can see this is going to be a fascinating panel.

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Nussbaum Txt