Philosopher: Friend or Foe

Response to Martha C. Nussbaum's Public Philosophy and International Feminism, Ð'©1998

Philosopher: Friend or Foe

"Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime."

-Ancient Chinese Philosopher, Lao Tzu

Where do philosophers fit within the political decision making process? This question is explored and discussed by Martha Nussbaum.1 It can be argued that philosophers present esoteric discussions that provoke and generally slow down decision making processes. However, good decisions should be based not just on hard data but on exploration of capability married with an environment2 that promotes an individual's ability to function, or choose to function.

If we look at the prevailing paradigm in education (at the political level), there is an emphasis on achieving the "hard" skills for success in a particular field. This long accepted belief that given the skills, one can do anything is a generalization based on fact. Many of the funding decisions made about education are focused on well-documented statistics about the needs of various industries. The decision to spend funds on developing capability is not bad one. Often there are time constraints, usually imposed by government fiscal responsibilities, and the need to respond quickly to current demand. Those constraints are acceptable but they do not allow for exploration of how increased capability can be limited by the environment of the beneficiary; factors that limit functionality.

Nussbaum's paper talks about overcoming the limiting factors of social and cultural traditions to allow an Indian woman to make the choice to utilize her capacity. She supports the role of the philosopher in the decision making process because the philosopher injects needed consideration of education, health, nutrition, family support, etc. that allows the Indian woman to increase and utilize her functional capabilities. I agree with Nussbaum that without these environmental supports, a person is robbed of the ability to choose be fully capable regards of his/her functional capacity. What a person's full capabilities are, how and whether they choose to utilize them are two different things and subject for a different discussion. In our existing paradigm, we tend to disregard choice and only look at desired outcomes. We are disappointed as educators if someone does not meet our expectations, when we have given them the skills to function. We forget that one, there is choice and two, and does that person have the environmental supports to allow the choice to realize full capability.

The role of the philosopher then is to be an essential part of the process. Too often, philosophical