Envy, propelled by fear, can be even more toxic than anger, because it involves the thought that other people enjoy the good things of life which the envier can't hope to attain through hard work and emulation.
You have to connect your work to what people are doing. A good way is to construct a bridge between theory and practice - Amartya Sen and I tried this by founding the Human Development and Capabilities Association where practitioners meet theoreticians and their discourse influences practice.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the importance of linking theoretical knowledge with practical application in the field of human development.
Martha Nussbaum discusses the realization that effective work in human development must connect theoretical frameworks with the practical realities faced by individuals. She highlights her efforts in establishing the Human Development and Capabilities Association, which serves as a platform for practitioners and theoreticians to engage in meaningful dialogue that can positively influence practical approaches in the field. This connection between theory and practice is essential for impactful solutions to emerge.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used during a workshop on effective education strategies.
More from Martha Nussbaum
All quotes →This is true across every single society; we project grossness onto a racial or gender subgroup or caste. A big part of social subordination and discrimination is to ascribe hyper-animality to other groups and use that as an excuse for subordinating them further.
Often, we feel helpless in lots of situations in our lives. The way anger gets a grip on us is it seems to be a way to extricate ourselves from helplessness.
Courses in the humanities, in particular, often seem impractical, but they are vital, because they stretch your imagination and challenge your mind to become more responsive, more critical, bigger.
I find so often, you know, just on a very mundane level; you've got a meeting and your child's acting in a school play. You can't do both things. And it's not simply that you can't do both, but whatever you do, you're going to be neglecting something that's really important.
Look at the great tradition of Western political philosophy. Those people were all immersed in revolutionary movements. Most weren't career academics - often, they were too radical to be accepted in the academy. Rousseau's books were banned. Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill couldn't hold academic positions because they were atheists.
Similar quotes
Many girls do not go to school because of poverty.
A child from the age of 2 or 3 absorbs what is in the environment and what generates hatred for anyone perceived to be different.
...the reader who plucks a book from her shelf only once is as deprived as the listener who, after attending a single performance of a Beethoven symphony, never hears it again.
What we want to help children with is, just because you feel sad or happy or depressed doesn't mean that is who you are. We want them to know, 'I am really sad right now, but I am not a sad person.'
What is the use of merely listening to lectures? The real thing is practice.
There are no bad books any more than there are ugly women.