Essay question help

Essay #2 is based on Chapter 2 Disabilities and the Social Contract (pp 96-106).

Here is a PDF version of the entire book, Frontiers of Justice - Disability, Nationality, Species Membership.

Nussbaum, Martha - Frontiers of Justice.pdf

Below you will find Chapter 2 Disabilities and the Social Contract (pp 96-106).

Please closely follow the essay outline below.

Please imagine the reader has no idea what social contract theory is. Please make sure to clearly define what it is before you begin with the critique. Please make sure to adequately cover all the author's supporting arguments. Please refer to the author by her last name.

Ethics Defined: Social Contract Theory (Links to an external site.)

Social Contract Theory is the idea that society exists because of an implicitly agreed-to set of standards that provide moral and political rules of behavior. This video is part of Ethics Defined, an animated library of more than 50 ethics terms and concepts from Ethics Unwrapped, available at https://ethicsunwrapped.utexas.edu/glossary For ...

www.youtube.com

Ethics Defined: Social Contract Theory (Links to an external site.)

Social Contract Theory is the idea that society exists because of an implicitly agreed-to set of standards that provide moral and political rules of behavior. This video is part of Ethics Defined, an animated library of more than 50 ethics terms and concepts from Ethics Unwrapped, available at https://ethicsunwrapped.utexas.edu/glossary For ...

www.youtube.com

Intro (should include the author's thesis statement and an overview of the supporting arguments/claims



Author's Supporting Argument #1 - Define social contract theory



Author's Supporting Argument #2 - Three Examples of Individuals Afflicted with Mental Impairments - A Serious Flaw in Modern Social Contract Theories



Author's Supporting Argument #3 - Disproportionate Workload of Caretakers



Author's Supporting Argument #4 - Disability and Dependency Come in Many Forms - The experience of dependency is not exclusive to those with mental disabilities Author's Supporting Argument #5 - Criticisims of Social Contract Theories Author's Supporting Argument #6 - Recognizing the family as a public institution - Moving towards a more inclusive environment for all of society’s citizens. Conclusion (restating the thesis statement and summarizing and supporting arguments/claims)

https://www.coursera.org/lecture/revolutionary-ideas-utility-justice-equality-freedom/lecture-3-2-1-justice-the-ten-central-human-capabilities-k7jyB (Links to an external site.)

 (Links to an external site.)

Lecture 3.2.1: Justice: The Ten Central Human Capabilities - Unit 3: Justice - Coursera (Links to an external site.)

Video created by Rutgers the State University of New Jersey for the course "Revolutionary Ideas: Utility, Justice, Equality, Freedom". Why should we have a State? This unit examines answers that focus on the State’s role in bringing about ...

www.coursera.org

​"Social contract theory assumes that two equally positioned, able-bodied people are willing to act in each other’s best interests because they expect mutual advantage and reciprocity.  Nussbaum advances a “capabilities approach,” introduced by Amartya Sen in economics.  Unlike its name, which connotes function, the capabilities approach focuses on a list of ten core opportunities or freedoms that all people should have and be able to experience; she argues “that all of them are implicit in the idea of a life worthy of human dignity” (p. 70). The ten opportunities include life; bodily health; bodily integrity; senses, imagination, and thought; emotions; practical reason; affiliation; other species; play; and control over one’s environment (pp. 76-77). Nussbaum regards this project as “fully universal” (p. 78) and an “essay in practical philosophy” (p. 4)."

Reviewer: Carrie Griffin Basas, J.D.

The Central Human Capabilities (pp.76-78)

1. Life. Being able to live to the end of a human life of normal length; not dying prematurely, or before one’s life is so reduced as to be not worth living.

2. Bodily Health. Being able to have good health, including reproductive health; to be adequately nourished; to have adequate shelter.

3. Bodily Integrity. Being able to move freely from place to place; to be secure against violent assault, including sexual assault and domestic violence; having opportunities for sexual satisfaction and for choice in matters of reproduction.

4. Senses, Imagination, and Thought. Being able to use the senses, to imagine, think, and reason—and to do these things in a “truly human” way, a way informed and cultivated by an adequate education, including, but by no means limited to, literacy and basic mathematical and scientific training. Being able to use imagination and thought in connection with experiencing and producing works and events of one’s own choice, religious, literary, musical, and so forth. Being able to use one’s mind in ways protected by guarantees of freedom of expression with respect to both political and artistic speech, and freedom of religious exercise. Being able to have pleasurable experiences and to avoid nonbeneficial pain.

5. Emotions. Being able to have attachments to things and people outside ourselves; to love those who love and care for us, to grieve at their absence; in general, to love, to grieve, to experience longing, gratitude, and justified anger. Not having one’s emotional development blighted by fear and anxiety. (Supporting this capability means supporting forms of human association that can be shown to be crucial in their development.)

6. Practical Reason. Being able to form a conception of the good and to engage in critical reflection about the planning of one’s life. (This entails protection for the liberty of conscience and religious observance.)

7. Affiliation.

A. Being able to live with and toward others, to recognize and show concern for other human beings, to engage in various forms of social interaction; to be able to imagine the situation of another. (Protecting this capability means protecting institutions that constitute and nourish such forms of affiliation, and also protecting the freedom of assembly and political speech.)

B. Having the social bases of self-respect and nonhumiliation; being able to be treated as a dignified being whose worth is equal to that of others. This entails provisions of nondiscrimination on the basis of race, sex, sexual orientation, ethnicity, caste, religion, national origin.

8. Other Species. Being able to live with concern for and in relation to animals, plants, and the world of nature.

9. Play. Being able to laugh, to play, to enjoy recreational activities.

10. Control over One’s Environment.

A. Political. Being able to participate effectively in political choices that govern one’s life; having the right of political participation, protections of free speech and association.

B. Material. Being able to hold property (both land and movable goods), and having property rights on an equal basis with others; having the right to seek employment on an equal basis with others; having the freedom from unwarranted search and seizure. In work, being able to work as a human being, exercising practical reason and entering into meaningful relationships of mutual recognition with other workers.