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Cultivating humanity:

a classical defense of reform in liberal education
Front Cover
12 Reviews
Harvard University Press, 1997 - 328 pages

How can higher education today create a community of critical thinkers and searchers for truth that transcends the boundaries of class, gender, and nation? Martha C. Nussbaum, philosopher and classicist, argues that contemporary curricular reform is already producing such "citizens of the world" in its advocacy of diverse forms of cross-cultural studies. Her vigorous defense of "the new education" is rooted in Seneca's ideal of the citizen who scrutinizes tradition critically and who respects the ability to reason wherever it is found--in rich or poor, native or foreigner, female or male.

Drawing on Socrates and the Stoics, Nussbaum establishes three core values of liberal education--critical self-examination, the ideal of the world citizen, and the development of the narrative imagination. Then, taking us into classrooms and campuses across the nation, including prominent research universities, small independent colleges, and religious institutions, she shows how these values are (and in some instances are not) being embodied in particular courses. She defends such burgeoning subject areas as gender, minority, and gay studies against charges of moral relativism and low standards, and underscores their dynamic and fundamental contribution to critical reasoning and world citizenship.

For Nussbaum, liberal education is alive and well on American campuses in the late twentieth century. It is not only viable, promising, and constructive, but it is essential to a democratic society. Taking up the challenge of conservative critics of academe, she argues persuasively that sustained reform in the aim and content of liberal education is the most vital and invigorating force in higher education today.

  

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Review: Cultivating Humanity: A Classical Defense of Reform in Liberal Education

User Review  - John - Goodreads

There is a debate in the humanities about the relevance of the western cannon. Neo-conservatives think it is important for the west to have its own distinct identity which is cultivated by the ... Read full review

Review: Cultivating Humanity: A Classical Defense of Reform in Liberal Education

User Review  - Kurt Xyst - Goodreads

This book is largely a defense of the western tradition of faculty-centric education in the model of Socratic force of personality. Students in humanistic disciplines (her primary focus) can a) be ... Read full review

All 12 reviews »

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Contents

INTRODUCTION The Old Education and the ThinkAcademy
1
CHAPTER ONE Socratic SelfExamination
15
CHAPTER TWO Citizens of the World
50
CHAPTER THREE The Narrative Imagination
85
CHAPTER FOUR The Study of NonWestern Cultures
113
CHAPTER FIVE AfricanAmerican Studies
148
CHAPTER SIX Womens Studies
186
CHAPTER SEVEN The Study of Human Sexuality
222
CHAPTER EIGHT Socrates in the Religious University
257
CONCLUSION The New Liberal Education
293
Notes
305
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Cultivating humanity: a classical defense of reform in liberal education
Cultivating humanity: a classical defense of reform in liberal education
Martha Craven Nussbaum
Snippet view - 1997

Common terms and phrases

academic African African-American studies Amartya Sen American ancient Greek anger argue argument Aristophanes Aristotle basic campus Catholic Chinese claim classics classroom complex conception course critical cross-cultural curricular curriculum Dame debate democracy democratic discussion diversity ethical example experience faculty female feminist focus focused freedom frequently gender goal Harvard higher education homosexuality human human sexuality idea identity identity politics imagination important Indian inquiry institutions intellectual interdisciplinary issues justice Kenneth Dover knowledge language lesbian literary literature lives male moral Mormon nation non-Western cultures norms one's person philosophy Plato political problems questions racial reason religion religious requires respect role Roman scholars scholarship sexual social society Socrates Stoics teaching thinkers thought topic tradition truth undergraduate understanding values W. E. B. Du Bois Western women women's studies world citizen world citizenship young

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References from web pages

Martha C. Nussbaum. Cultivating Humanity: A Classical Defense of ...
F rontiers :. The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad. 245. B ook R eviews. Martha C. Nussbaum. Cultivating Humanity: A Classical Defense of Reform in ...
www.frontiersjournal.com/ documents/ BookReviewsFrontiersAug05.pdf

Cultivating Humanity: A Classical Defense of Reform in Liberal ...
Cultivating Humanity: A Classical Defense of Reform in Liberal Education. by Pheme Perkins. By Martha C. Nussbaum Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press ...
www.questia.com/ PM.qst?a=o& se=gglsc& d=5001234855

Cultivating Humanity: A Classical Defense of Reform in Liberal ...
Cultivating Humanity: A Classical Defense of Reform in Liberal Education / Education and Democracy: Re-imagining Liberal Learning in America from Academe in ...
findarticles.com/ p/ articles/ mi_qa3860/ is_/ ai_n8810559

Cultivating Humanity
... example of a prominent religious university in Martha C. Nussbaum's new book, Cultivating Humanity: A Classical Defense of Reform in Liberal Education. ...
www.lds-mormon.com/ ch.shtml

Nussbaum recognized for her book <I>Cultivating Humanity</I>
Martha Nussbaum, the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law & Ethics in the Law School, has been awarded the Grawemeyer Award in Education by ...
chronicle.uchicago.edu/ 011129/ nussbaum.shtml

Cultivating Humanity: A Classical Defense of Reform in Liberal ...
Title: Cultivating Humanity: A Classical Defense of Reform in Liberal Education. Authors: Nussbaum, Martha C. Descriptors: Consciousness Raising; Critical ...
www.eric.ed.gov/ ERICWebPortal/ recordDetail?accno=ED415738

NAIS - Publications - Independent School Magazine - Cultivating ...
... of numerous books, including Cultivating Humanity: A Classical Defense of Reform in Liberal Education, published in 1997 by Harvard University Press. ...
www.nais.org/ publications/ ismagazinearticle.cfm?ItemNumber=144338

Human Development and Capability Association ()
Cultivating Humanity: A Classical Defense of Reform in Liberal Education. : Harvard University Press. Flores-Crespo, Pedro. 2005. ...
www.capabilityapproach.com/ PubList.php?keyword=11& pubtype=bibliography

Amardeep Singh: Cultivating Humanity? Democracy and Software Engineers
Cultivating Humanity? Democracy and Software Engineers. Martha Nussbaum has a piece in this month's issue of Liberal Education, on the value of "cultivating ...
www.lehigh.edu/ ~amsp/ 2004/ 04/ cultivating-humanity-democracy-and.html

Powell's Books - Cultivating Humanity: A Classical Defense of ...
New, Trade paper, $21.50 · New, Trade paper, $22.75 · Used, Trade paper, $11.00. Cultivating Humanity: A Classical Defense of Reform in Liberal Education ...
www.powells.com/ partner/ 31879/ biblio/ 0674179498

About the author (1997)

Martha C. Nussbaum is Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago.

Bibliographic information

QR code for Cultivating humanity
TitleCultivating humanity: a classical defense of reform in liberal education
AuthorMartha C. Nussbaum
Edition6, illustrated, reprint
PublisherHarvard University Press, 1997
ISBN0674179498, 9780674179493
Length328 pages
  
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