Not for Profit – Vinny Sanfillipo

Martha Nussbaum. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2010. 178pp.

In Not for Profit, Martha Nussbaum argues that the humanities are extremely vital for the development of democracies, not just because the various disciplines within the humanities prompt creative thought, and develop argumentative skills, and imaginative capabilities, but also because they enable people to have the skills and abilities necessary to effectively participate in a democracy. She refers to this as a “crisis that goes largely unnoticed, like a cancer; a crisis that is likely to be, in the long run, far more damaging to the future of democratic self-government: a world-wide education crisis” (Nussbaum 1-2). The crisis is that humanities programs around the world are being cut, and little has been done to reverse this pattern. In fact, according to Nussbaum, students may in fact lose the abilities that are necessary to participate well in a democracy, such as “the ability to think critically; the ability to transcend local loyalties and to approach world problems as a “citizen of the world;” and, finally, the ability to imagine sympathetically the predicament of another person” (7). Her two example nations are India and the United States, with the former already far beyond the latter’s shafting of the humanities. She makes several other supplementary arguments in support of the her claims that both the humanities are vital to the health of a democracy, and that without them, democracy as it is currently conceptualized will die out. One argument she makes is that the way a nation grows has been skewed in a way that prioritizes only economic growth, and that this perception has lead some to “never mind about distribution and social equality, never mind about the preconditions of stable democracy, never mind about the quality of race and gender relations, never mind about the improvement of other aspects of a human being’s quality of life that are not well linked to economic growth” (14). In other words, without the humanities as part of the education, growth will continue to be conceptualized as only economic growth, and things such as like social justice and equality may become irrelevant. Her next argument revolves around how the humanities can contribute to the skill set of any student. These skills, she argues, resonate the capability to be active effectively in a democracy. Skills like research, analysis, empathy, critical thinking, argumentation, and logic, learned from studying literature, philosophy, history, and the arts, allow one to participate in a democracy because they allow help one to see the world in different ways, view issues from an alternative perspectives, and understand contemplate the human condition, enough to and empathize with someone on the opposite side. With these kinds of skills, one can be more open-minded and willing to compromise on issues that were formerly contentious. Without these skills, Nussbaum fears that citizens may not be able to form logically-sound, well-rounded opinions about the issues that the democratic nation may be facing.

In her chapter on “Socratic Pedagogy,” she extrapolates on the importance of the Socratic method and how it teaches students to think critically. The Socratic method is a method employed by some educators that requires students to logically “think out” all sorts of problems, rather than just be supplied with facts. She claims that this type of mind is necessary for a democracy, as it produces a certain kind of citizen, one that is “active, critical, curious, capable of resisting authority and peer pressure” (72), all of which are essential necessary for a democracy to thrive. She also argues that the humanities offer a perspective to conceive of the world and one’s place in it as not just a citizen of a specific nation-state, but as a citizen of the world (79-80). Many of the world’s current problems are global at their core, and one must perceive them as global in order to combat them. Strategies to combat them require creativity and critical thought, skills, as mentioned above, the humanities are known for supplying. This book highlights an important problem in the world. As increasing interest is placed on profit, by extension, a decreasing emphasis is being placed on one’s being critical and creative. Critical thinking, being critical, argumentative skills, and creativity are all important in a democracy. Without these skills, citizens will not be able to effectively discern which candidate is better than which, which solution to issue x is the best, and or how to imagine new ways to combat current problems. Thus, democracy will lose its efficacy, and democracies of the world may cease to be democracies once they lose the ability to serve the citizens that make them up, and the world may find itself in governments that are only focused on profits, and not on the freedoms and rights of their people. I would recommend this book to any college curriculum staff members who are considering making cuts to the humanities. I would also recommend this to all academics, as I think there is something valuable in learning the importance of each discipline, and in understanding that a well-rounded education produces is important for producing active citizens who both can perform at their careers, and effectively exercise their rights and to criticize the government. The book will allow the reader to better understand the importance of the humanities and how they can contribute to someone in business, math, and the sciences. Nussbaum’s prose is concise, but it’s definitely accessible to a lay reader person to read in their spare time, should they be interested in the topic, or curious about Nussbaum’s insights on the matter