Cultivating Humanity: A Classical Defense of Reform in Liberal Education

I did not read this book as amounting to a bashing of the Enlightenment canon at all. Rather, it struck me as an all-too-uncommon commonsensical, middle-ground position, well articulated, on controversy over multiculturalism. Reading some of these negative reviews leaves me scratching my head wondering whether these reviewers and I read the same book. I understood Nussbaum to be offering a "both/and" approach that would retain teaching of the "dead white men" Western canon but add to it the best of voices from other traditions. The practical difficulties of doing this seem obvious enough: what to leave out, then? Unless she is advocating more time spent in college curricula on humanities studies and/or more required courses than is the case in many colleges and universities for undergrads these days. I did not see arguments for either of those points of view so one question would be how to implement her suggestions even if one agrees with them? There is only so much time in a day and so much space in a curriculum. Passionate subject-matter advocates ultimately weaken their case when they don't say what should be taught less. Still, Nussbaum is asking powerful questions and contributing what I see as all-too-infrequent well-stated middle-ground fodder to inform these discussions. So even if you find her case unpersuasive this book should help you clarify your own views on this subject.

Inasmuch as this book is an account of Nussbaum's research on the success of muticultural education at a few dozen American universities, it will be read as a challenge to the doom-saying conservatives who argue that education has gone to Hell since we abandoned the Great Books tradition of the Fifties. And it works rather well as such: as well as she can while writing for a lay audience, she confronts the likes of Alan Bloom on their own terms, demonstrating that there's a lot to be said for seeing muticultural education as an extension, rather than a betrayal, of the Western Philosophical Tradition. But what's interesting is her intolerance of hypocrisy on the Left as well as the Right: she denounces the excesses of Afrocentrism and the self-validating fantasies of academic feminism as well as any conservative editorialist. She's very much her own woman, and a public moralist in the best sense.

I have had the privelige of studying and discussing Matha Nussbaum's work for the past several years at the Thomas More Institute in Montreal, a wonderful little think-tank dedicated to education and learning by the Socratic Questioning method; after learning a lifetime's worth from this one small volume, I wish that the title of my review could be the sub-title of this book. Questioning this book has answered many a question on many levels allowing colleagues and I to piece together answers to life's most important questions on education, world citizenship and what it really means to be cosmopolitan.This book has been especially important as reading and discussing it has answered any question or doubt that I might have had about the liberal arts education - experience. Through discussion this text has been brought to life and my choice of education thus makes more sense to me today than it did when the experience was begun several years ago. I wish that there could be a way for every educator, legislator, parent and student to be exposed to this book and the philosophy behind it; anyone who picks it up, regardless of background, will find it enriching if not enlightening. One cannot read this work without wanting to strive towards becoming a true citizen of the world.

"Cultivating Humanity" is one of the most thoughtful examinations of the concept of a liberal education that I've read in a long time. Nussbaum tell us that Socratic questioning is still on trial, that becoming a citizen of the world is a lonely business, and that a visceral and intellectual understanding of compassion is a key requisite. This book amounts to classical thought applied to the dilemmas of postmodernism. Highly recommended.

This is a must read to those who oppose and fancy a "liberal" education. Nussbaum has done a remarkable job explaining how learning about other cultures and lifestyles can truly enrich a person's life. A book like this opens people's minds to new and critical ways of looking at the world and at yourself. The only way to make this world a better place to live is through education and understanding. Nussbaum's book provides valuable information on why to to question we what have learned as "normal" history. The history of African Americans, Native Americans, Women, Asians, and homosexuals have been suppressed for centuries by those in power. If we are to understand each other as individuals and human beings, we must learn of about one another. Nussbaum's book is one right step in that direction.