Martha Nussbaum
Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics
1111 East 60th Street
Chicago, IL 60637
phone: 773-702-3470
email: martha_nussbaum@law.uchicago.edu

Current Year Courses

• 49901 26 Independent Research
  Second- and third-year students may earn course credit by independent research under the supervision of a member of the faculty. Such projects are arranged by consultation between the student and the particular member of the faculty in whose field the proposed topic falls.
  Autumn (3)
  
  
• 52301 1 Education and Moral Psychology
  This seminar will study some classic works in the philosophy of education, asking what account of children they articulate and how their educational proposals are connected both to psychological analysis and to normative ethical and political ideas. Included will be philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, the Greek and Roman Stoics, Rousseau, Kant, J. S. Mill, Dewey, and Rabindranath Tagore, but also thinkers about childhood and education who were not professional philosophers, such as Friedrich Froebel, Johann Pestalozzi, Maria Montessori, and Donald Winnicott. We will ask about how education is related to important goals of the personal life, such as happiness and autonomy, but also how it is related to important goals of a shared political life, such as mutual respect and compassionate attention to human need. Enrollment limited to 25. Permission of the instructor required, and this should be sought in writing (email) by September 20. A minimum prerequisite is an undergraduate major in philosophy or the equivalent course work in philosophy.
  Autumn (3) c/l, +
  
  
• 52401 1 Cicero's De Finibus and Hellenistic Ethics
  Cicero's dialogue De Finibus (On Ends) is his attempt to sort out the major arguments for and against the ethical theories characteristic of Epicureanism, Stoicism, and the "New Academy." It thus provides us with some of our best information about the views of these schools, as well as with critical arguments of great interest. We will read extracts from the dialogue in Latin, focusing on Epicureanism (Books I and II) and Stoicism (Books III and IV), and we will study the entire work in translation, along with relevant primary sources for the views of the schools (the surviving letters of Epicurus, central texts of Greek and Roman Stoicism). The course will thus aim to provide a solid introduction to the major ethical theories of the Hellenistic period. The course is open to all who have had five quarters of Latin, or equivalent preparation. Translation will always take place during the first hour, and students without Latin are invited to take the course for an R or audit, arriving after that time and doing all the readings in translation. In some cases Independent Study numbers may be arranged for students who want to do some of the course requirements (paper and exam essays) without Latin.
  Winter (3) c/l, +
  
  
• 61512 1 Workshop: Law and Philosophy
  This is a seminar/workshop most of whose participants are faculty from various area institutions. It admits approximately ten students by permission of the instructors. Its aim is to study, each year, a topic that arises in both philosophy and the law and to ask how bringing the two fields together may yield mutual illumination. There are twelve meetings throughout the year, always on Mondays from 4 to 6 PM. Half of the sessions are led by local faculty, half by visiting speakers. The leader assigns readings for the session (which may be by that person, by other contemporaries, or by major historical figures), and the session consists of a brief introduction by the leader, followed by structured questioning by the two faculty coordinators, followed by general discussion. Past themes have included: practical reason; equality; privacy; autonomy; global justice; pluralism and toleration; war; sexuality and family. The theme for 2007-8 will be Coercion. Confirmed speakers include Grant Lamond, Cass Sunstein, Scott Anderson, and Claire Finkelstein (fall), Charles Tilly, Margaret Jane Radin, James Lindgren, Janice Nadler and Alan Wertheimer (winter), and Stephen Schulhofer, John Hagan, Robert Pape, and Charles Larmore (spring). The schedule of meetings will be announced by mid-September. Usual student participants include graduate students in philosophy, political science, and divinity, and law students. Students write a 20-25 page seminar paper at the end of the year. The course satisfies the Law School Writing Requirement. Interested students must submit a c.v. and a statement of interest (reasons for interest in the course, relevant background in law and/or philosophy) to Professors Nussbaum and Anderson via e-mail, by September 20, 2007.
  Autumn (1) a, b, c/l
  
  
• 75101 1 Decisionmaking: Principles and Foundations
  Individuals, particularly those in leadership positions, are often called upon to make decisions on behalf of others. Such decisions are made in both the public and private spheres and can have enormous influence both on individual lives and on public policy. Lawyers are often called on either to make important decisions themselves or to give counsel to people who make them. The way in which individuals are judged often turns on a handful of decisions they make over the course of their lives, and the way they make these decisions has been the focus of thinkers from Thucydides and Aristotle to Bentham and Kant. It has also been a recurring theme in literature and much of modern economics. The course offers a rigorous study of how philosophers and others have examined these questions, and the tools they have used, including those from behavioral economics and game theory. Included will be discussion of moral dilemmas and of some of the more common pathologies of decision-making: akrasia, self-deception, blind obedience to authority.
  Spring (3) e, c/l
  
  
• 95922 1 Greenberg Seminar: Shakespeare and the Law
  We will read and discuss a group of plays of Shakespeare that have legal connections, including Measure for Measure, Hamlet, King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Merchant of Venice, and others to be determined by the group. We will meet twice in each of the three quarters, alternating between Posner's home and Nussbaum's. Our last meeting will be an informal play reading, with casting done by students (though the professors are willing to act!). We therefore encourage applicants who have experience in theatre, and they should indicate this background when applying. Interested students need to contact the instructors (martha_nussbaum@law.uchicago.edu and Richard_Posner@ca7.uscourts.gov) by September 4 with a short statement explaining why they want to take the class.
  Autumn (1) a
  
  

Other courses taught include:

• Aristophanies
• Decisionmaking: Principles and Foundations
• Religion and the State
• Equality as a Political Value
• The Fear of Death
• Feminist Philosophy
• The Letters of Cicero and Seneca
• Mill