This volume brings together Martha Nussbaum's published papers, some
revised for this collection, on the relationship between literature and
philosophy, especially moral philosophy. It also includes two new essays and a
substantial introduction.This volume brings together Martha Nussbaum's published papers, some
revised for this collection, on the relationship between literature and
philosophy, especially moral philosophy. It also includes two new essays and a
substantial Introduction. The papers, many of them previously not readily
available to non-specialist readers, explore such fundamental issues as the
relationship between style and content in the exploration of ethical questions;
the nature of ethical attention and ethical knowledge and their relationship to
written forms and style; and the role of the emotions in deliberation and
self-knowledge. The author investigates and defends a conception of ethical
understanding which involves emotional as well as intellectual activity, and
which gives a certain type of priority to the perception of particular people
and situations rather than to abstract rule.
