Week 9: Nussbaum & Talaga (March 4-8)

Monday, March 4

Required

Nussbaum, M. (1997). Capabilities and human rights. Links to an external site. Fordham Law Review, 66(2), 273-300.

Read pp. 280 (start with "As a theory of the relevant space..." to end of section III on p. 292; the rest of this article is optional.
In this article, Martha Nussbaum starts by reviewing a few ways people have tried to evaluate quality of life around the world (GNP, utilitarianism, a theory by a philosopher named John Rawls), and finds problems with each of them. Then she describes the "capabilities approach" to quality of life, and argues that what we should be doing is ensuring that everyone possesses a set of capabilities that are required to live a fully human life.

Optional

A BBC podcast interview with Martha Nussbaum on the capabilities approach: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b012r6vg Links to an external site.
An interview with Nussbaum on the capabilities approach (2011): Creating Capabilities Links to an external site.
A part of a documentary called The Examined Life (2008), with Martha Nussbaum explaining her capabilities approach: Examined Life: Martha Nussbaum Links to an external site.

Wednesday March 6

We will finish discussing Nussbaum, and also talk about one of Tanya Talaga's Massey lectures (below).

Required

You can either listen to an audio file (number 1 below) OR read a text file (number 2 below) from Talaga. You don't have to do both!

Content warning: Talaga talks about the high suicide rate amongst Indigenous people in Canada and elsewhere around the world, compared with rates for other groups. She focuses on trying to explain why this is happening, and thereby sometimes directly, sometimes indirectly suggests ways to address the problem. If you think this may be too difficult for you to read or listen to for some reason, please let Christina know and we can find an alternative resource for you to read/listen to instead.

1. Talaga, Tanya. (2018). I breathe for them. 2018 CBC Massey Lectures.

You can listen to this audio recording on the CBC 2018 Massey Lectures site Links to an external site. (scroll down to lecture 4). Listen from the beginning until the break at 19:30, then listen from 23:23 to 45:50 (the rest is optional).

2. Talaga, Tanya. (2018). All Our Relations: Finding the Path Forward. Anansi Press. Excerpts from the chapters "I Breathe for Them" and "We Are Not Going Anywhere."

Excerpts from this book are on the Library Online Course Reserves page for this course.
This is a text version of the CBC Massey lectures. It was written after Talaga gave the lectures, and differs slightly from the audio version.
There are excerpts from two chapters here, and they seem to run right into each other on the PDF. Stop at the middle of p. 168, and then there is an excerpt from a later chapter right after that; start in the middle of p. 211.

Optional

Two videos (out of a series of four) produced by the First Nations Health Council (in British Columbia) in 2010 about the causes of some of the problems with health in Indigenous communities, as well as the state of health services for First Nations peoples in BC at that time.
Implementing the Vision: Chapter 2- A Knowledge Gap Links to an external site.
Implementing the Vision: Chapter 3- Current Health Services Links to an external site.

Discussion meetings this week

There will be student-led discussions in discussion meetings this week.

What to do before next week

If you led a student discussion in discussion meetings this week, be sure to post your discussion summary by Monday, March 11 at 5pm.
Do readings for next week (see week 10)
If you want, post on the discussion board for Singer to Held

Image credit: Martha Nussbaum Links to an external site., by Robin Holland, licensed CC BY-SA 3.0 Links to an external site. on Wikimedia Commons