Nussbaum's capabilities approach in perspective: purposes, methods and sources for an ethics of human development

Martha Nussbaum has built an approach to human development which looks not
only at the evaluation of situations and actions, but contributes to description, understanding, and inspiration. The paper introduces this variety of purposes and a corresponding range of appropriate methods.1
Secondly, it characterizes the elements of
Nussbaum’s capabilities approach, as part of an overall approach to ethics. It does this
as a comparison with Sen’s capability approach, in terms of (a) general orientation, (b)
intellectual style (including theory of personhood), (c) the components of their capability approaches, (d) the roles undertaken by the approaches, and (e) the methods used
(including the types of evidence, case material and presentation). Thirdly, it elucidates
and assesses Nussbaum’s methods in detail, including her employment of imaginative
literature and the use and analysis of emotions, and shows their importance for contributing in the broad and necessary range of roles which she has identified.