Justicia poética

by Martha C. Nussbaum

In Poetic Justice, one of our most prominent philosophers explores how the literary imagination is an essential ingredient of just public discourse and a democratic society.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Literary Criticism, Poetry, Books About Books, Politics, Essays

183 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Martha C. Nussbaum is Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago, appointed in the Law School and the Philosophy Department. Among her many awards are the 2018 Berggruen Prize, the 2017 Don M. Randel Award for Humanistic Studies from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the 2016 Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy.

Reviews

[path · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Storytelling and literary imagining are not opposed to rational argument, but can provide essential ingredients in a rational argument” (xiii)

As someone who appreciates and finds value in literary imagination, I am predisposed to agree with Nussbaum that the literary imagination has spillover value to it, beyond the enjoyment that it brings. Reading and participating in the literary imagination can make us better humans, but does literary imagination always or even sometimes have the outcome? Are all books capable of producing it? Her argument takes the form of a refutation. She wants to oppose three common assumptions about the utility of a literary imagination: 1) that it is unscientific, 2) that is is irrational, and 3) that it has no bearing on impartiality of judgement.

Instead of trying to make a claim that literary imagination IS scientific, Nussbaum leans into the idea that “good literature is disturbing” (5) in that it doesn’t always add up and it often stirs up emotional response to the content. Literature often frustrates our expectations or subverts them … and that is a part of its value. Engagement with literature and the world view that it offers “demands both immersion and critical conversation, comparison of what one has read both with one’s own unfolding experience and with the responses of other readers” (9, 75). It is in measuring a book’s perspectives against our own experiences and against the experiences of other readers that we attempt to find sufficient reason to believe or levy our experiences to falsify the perspectives offered. It is also true that a literary perspective can enlarge our worldview and expand our moral capabilities (12)

Nussbaum also counters the claim that literary imagination is irrational, not by saying that literature doesn’t stir the emotions but by denying that emotion is contrary to reason. In this way, she draws heavily on the argument about emotions that she lays out in Upheavals of Thought (my review). Literature orients us to what matters just as emotions orient us to what matters (59). Literature stirs up emotions but also focuses emotions. The emotional content is what we might feel personally, but the literature that evokes those responses convinces us that other people and other circumstances can be the cause of those emotions as well. And this is how emotion participates in rationality. Other people can be poor, lonely, abused, mistreated, celebrated, feared, and respected. And those people can make decisions or take actions on the basis of those circumstances and emotions that seem genuine and motivated (27). In considering how those decisions are made and actions are taken, literature asks us to reflect on our own circumstances via the emotional response the literature invokes (31) which are more complex than what literature offers and in that complexity creates awareness of the nuance and differences that matters for interpreting the actions of others (46, 67).

In the last section of the book, Nussbaum walks through a few Supreme Court cases, looking at the majority and dissenting opinions, noting where some of the justices relied on literary imagination to support a decision or other suggest reasons to doubt the decision that the court reached. Nussbaum uses these cases to argue that imagination is not antithetical to impartiality but is an important part of checking ourselves and our assumptions.

Nussbaum does admit that not every book will “prove equally valuable for citizenship” (10), and this does feel like an accurate disclaimer, even if it does open the whole conversation to the problem of deciding what books to canonize. Although she relies on books like Dickens’ Hard Times, Wright’s Native Son, and Forster’s Maurice to illustrate her points, it is a mistake to think that those books, canonized as they are, are better guides for moral and ethical reasoning than other books that are not culturally enshrined. Rather these books are just more successful, I think she would argue, at engaging readers in the kind of emotion-laden reasoning that she advocates for in this book (see 82). Perhaps that’s the way she attempts to escape the issue of choosing which books should be part of our critical consciousness and which ones to leave out. She substitutes a question of artistic and cultural merit with one of the quality of technical merits. I’m not really satisfied that this settles the matter.

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would label Nussbaum a philosopher, but point out her official position as professor of law and ethics. This book's main premise, boiled down, is the importance of a literary/humanities education (and an ongoing one at that) in public life. That, frankly, to be judge (and/or jury really); to be able to act humanely whether in the interests of others, or oneselves; to be, say, someone making decisions that affect all our citizens (hello jackhats in the senate & congress); literature is one of the only ways we can walk in the other's shoes enough to really understand what we are judging.

This is powerful stuff. Of course, it's not light reading, so if mysteries or humorous fiction are your preferred relaxation, this may not be for you. If you're ready to confront these issues, this book gives much ground for pondering. This is what I would want to do with law; exploring what it can do, and what it needs to do better. Now if everyone would wake up and see that the current political situation is only causing detriment to all...

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

An exploration of why having a literary imagination (ie: reading books) is such an important quality. Essentially, she argues that in novels, we can experience the inner thoughts and lives of people who may be very different from ourselves. This empathy or compassion can be brought to bear on our rational judgment - allowing us a deeper understanding of a situation. She speaks specifically of this in a legal context - court judges with literary imaginations assessing and sentencing criminals. But I see this as applicable to our everyday interactions and conflict resolutions as well. A strong argument that emotion can contribute to rational thought and decision making, rather than being its foil.

[Mackenzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still grieving after the murder of her boyfriend, hairdresser Justice (Janet Jackson) writes poetry to deal with the pain of her loss. Unable to get to Oakland to attend a convention because of her broken-down car, Justice gets a lift with her friend, Iesha (Regina King), and Iesha's postal worker boyfriend, Chicago (Joe Torry). Along for the ride is Chicago's co-worker, Lucky (Tupac Shakur), to whom Justice grows close after some initial problems. But still not sure if she should open her heart again

[Joan Sebastián Araujo Arenas · Rating 2 out of 5]

En lo que respecta a la literatura y su posible relevancia para la racionalidad pública, Martha Nussbaum expuso esta postura entendida como una invitación a los individuos a reflexionar moralmente y ponerse en el lugar ajeno para evitar la indiferencia, reconociendo que de nuestra frágil debilidad surge nuestra felicidad, al ser lectores de novelas realistas.

Con ello quiso plantear que...

El resto del escrito se encuentra en mi blog: https://jsaaopinionpersonal.wordpress...

[Falin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Me lo leí en primero de carrera e hice un ensayo horrible sobre este libro. A ver si me lo releo y puedo decir algo.

[Madeline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poetic Justice, like Nussbaum's earlier work (a collection of essays) Love's Knowledge is a marriage of philosophy and literature, although this book - which is sort of a long essay, actually - is, as one might guess from its brevity, much more focused. Poetic Justice is, more or less, about literature's role in creating compassionate critical thinkers, and how that makes for a better society.

[Cate Andrews · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has supported so much of my lesson planning for empathy, developing social skills and perspective taking for young people learning how to "become" a citizen and human in their education journey. Becoming aware of others is a difficult process for young 6-7 year olds in a time of gaming, technology and biological changes that challenge their world and world view belonging in a community. The need to reframe and look differently at others and to step back from the urge to simply put down or belittle someone to life low self esteem is difficult. To reframe justice through empathy takes time that our society takes from us through work, financial struggles, and the distance created in that timetable from nature and each other. We dehumanise to get through the day whether ourself and our expectations , or constructing others through resentment and blame. We alienate and agree to that contract whether explicitly or implicitly and unquestioned through life choices or, for some as we are determined by others choices. This book with Nussbaums others supports necessary conversations about social intelligence and our constructed interactions with others.

[Mark Valentine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written for those in Law, in Philosophy, in the Humanities, and everyone in between, Nussbaum centers her claims on studies of Dickens' novel, Hard Times, Whitman, Native Son by Wright, legal cases, Aristotle, literary criticism--ok, I did not mean to include another list. What I liked about Nussbaum's writing is her steady prose; it is like being in class and listening to a good lecture. Of course, at the time she wrote this, she taught Legal Studies and Literature at the University of Chicago.

The essence that I appreciate and what I believe will linger with me is her emphasis on the powers of literary imagination. Reading longer works of fiction allow us to empathize with characters and their predicaments. It is a practice field for living life. I believe this is so important because we, each of us as citizens and humans, are required to be as just and justice-loving as is our power AND the power of imagination, literary imagination, can help us achieve this.

[Cscha101 cha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book, really easy to read and concise and helps call into question Posner, Friedman and the law-economics movements's weaknesses and possibly tyranny's. It gives much needed incite on the humanity within law, its importance to law, and maybe possible modes of judicial reasoning and philosophy. Really foundational work for people interested in the legal system.

[Nash Jenkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of the most important texts of contemporary American literary philosophy from one of the most important contemporary American philosophers

[Olivia Cervera · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dense read

[Michelle]

okay i only read chapter 1 but i've carried it around so much the past 7 months i'm going to act like i read it. plz don't judge me!!

[Mike Forster Rothbart]

Swarthmore College Alumni Bookgroup book

[Sidney Megna · Rating 3 out of 5]

A read for class. Definitely interesting, my main concern? I wish I had read the books she writes about as examples! Cheers to the literary imagination.🥂

[Izzy Sunby]

Thank you Spanish 801 for the boost you’re about to give to my goodreads. This was fine.

[Jacquelyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Poetic Justice, Martha Nussbaum argues that literary imagination has a central role to play in political and legal judgments. Nussbaum is concerned by a deficit of sympathy and imagination in the political climate of the United States. She attributes this problem, at least in part, to the popular influence of schools of thought that separates emotion from rational arguments and devalues the role of the emotions. Taking aim at economic utilitarianism and legal models that unduly emphasize detachment while simultaneously choosing novels like Hard Times and Maurice as her allies, Nussbaum proposes a vision public imagination in which certain emotions have an important role to play in legal and political decision making.

This book addresses two central questions. First, how to measure the well-being of a population? The motivation behind this question is a concern over the influence of utilitarian measures of well-being that fail to consider important facets of human life and economic rational choice models that profess to be wholly objective descriptions of well-being but smuggle in bizarre and undesirable normative implications. Second, what role, if any, should emotions play in legal decision making?

Nussbaum defends the thesis that emotional engagement and sympathy can be not only compatible with, but important to, legal judgments. While arguments about the role of literature and novels in morality are obviously not unheard of, I have not read any other work of philosophy in which the role of poetry/literature in a legal setting is defended like this. I'm not sure I agree with this thesis, but it is an interesting one.

I do wish Nussbaum would have defended her claim that emotions are responsive to reasons and cognitive judgment more robustly, maybe referring to empirical studies. She also has an undue fixation on "highbrow" literature to do the important moral work that hinders her article. Nevertheless, I found this work to be a quick, accessible, and interesting introduction into Nussbaum's thought.

[Shío López · Rating 4 out of 5]

El libro puede dividirse en dos partes, en la primera la autora hace una distinción entre los estudios económicos del derecho y los estudios críticos del derecho, deja clara su postura inclinada más a los estudios críticos del derecho, que a los económicos por presentarse más lejanos y fríos ante las emociones en el derecho. En la segunda parte, la autora plantea casos reales donde los juzgadores fueron más allá de los argumentos estrictamente legales y abrevaron de otras narrativas para plantear la solución a los casos escuchando a grupos vulnerables.
De manera concreta Martha Nussbaum ofrece una postura ética a las y los estudiantes de derecho; potenciales operadores jurídicos como lectores de novelas realistas y con ello ejercitar la imaginación al momento de enfrentarse a la solución de casos donde los derechos humanos están en juego.
Dice la autora «la “justicia poética” necesita equiparse de gran cantidad de atributos no literarios: conocimiento técnico legal, conocimiento de la historia y de los precedentes, atención a la debida parcialidad. Pero, para ser plenamente racionales, los jueces también deben ser capaces de “fantasear” y comprender. No solo deben afinar sus aptitudes técnicas, sino su capacidad humana. En ausencia de esta capacidad, la imparcialidad es obtusa y la justicia, ciega. En ausencia de esta capacidad, las voces “largamente mudas” que procuran hablar por medio de esa justicia permanecerán en silencio, y el “sol naciente” del juicio democrático quedará velado. En ausencia de esa capacidad, las interminables de prisioneros y esclavos nos rodearán con su dolor y tendrán menos esperanza de libertad».
La autora no aclara porqué tendríamos que preferir las novelas realistas a otras narrativas, como ensayos, prosa, poemas, dramaturgia, etc. pero su planteamiento de ampliar la visión de quienes se forman como abogados atendiendo la literatura, al menos a mí, me resulta esperanzador.
Si estudias derecho, dale una oportunidad a este libro.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nussbaum is a little overzealous about the value of literature to public life, for a cynic like me. I think she looks at her subject backward, parsing specific literary texts, like Charles Dickens's Hard Times and Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass to see how they might help us be more sympathetic and thoughtful when thinking about public policy. Maybe she's couching pseudoscience in humanism and it's frustrating me? I don't know. Either way, Nussbaum makes some interesting points, but doesn't make enough of a connection between literature and public life here. I think these are important questions for both literature and the culture at large, though...

Notes:

p. xv - "I believe more strongly than ever that thinking narrative literature does have the potential to make a contribution to the law in particular, to public reasoning generally."

p. 5 - Quoting Aristotle - "Literary art, he said, is 'more philosophical' than history, because history simply shows us 'what happened,' whereas works of literary art show us 'things such as might happen' in a human life"
-literary works asks us to imagine and feel what the characters experience
-"it disoncerts and puzzles"
-"It inspires distrust of conventional pieties and exacts a frequently painful confrontation with one's own thoughts and intentions."

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book a great deal. Usually, I find Nussbaum very hard to follow. This book forms a nice corollary to Damasio's work, in that she explores the relationship between emotions and reasoning. At times this book seems to be almost apologetic about what it is proposing. It goes out of its way to not critique the economic utilitarian view. It touches on a more radical vision when suggesting that emotions, if freed of self-serving tendencies, can serve to set in order 'mathematical reasoning'.
This book also brings to mind Northrop Frye's writings on the literary imagination and its function. By helping to define things in the imagination, the world changes. In this regard, literature can be a revolutionary force in the world. (see notes under Ideas)

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good book. I liked it for several reasons, most important of which is that it offers a strong defense for why a literary imagination is necessary for the application of law and the excercise of judgment. It is a little preachy and at times I think she tries to hard. Plus, Charles Dickens as an example didn't always work because he can be smarmy. However, the articulation of a thesis wherein we learn emotional intelligence and develop intellectual curiosity through literature is worthy of strong defense.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd read (and taught) the first chapter of this book several times, so I wanted to dive in a little more deeply. The main idea doesn't change, but Nussbaum does provide several thought-provoking defenses of championed "literary imagination," including a decent defense of emotions as components of the rational mind. It's clear that Nussbaum's experience is primarily in the law. It would be worthwhile for others in economics, policy, bureaucracy (and the many other heads of the imposing "system" to which we are beholden) to provide similar illustrations.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This philosophical treat is a doosey for those not versed in its insular vernacular. It is a defense of literature against the pragmatic, and ultimately economically situated forces that shape our society.

This is no light reading, but it certainly is worthwhile.

[DoctorM · Rating 4 out of 5]

A clear and well-reasoned defense of the literary imagination as a way of connecting with both others and the world, and of imagination as a key bridge to social and political action.

[Melusine Parry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very clear and coherent, quietly radical, but not immune to criticism (least of which the fact that it essentially spends most of its time resting its theory on Dickens's Hard Times...)

[Todd · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not really good or bad, but thought provoking about what books can do.