Philosophical Interventions Reviews 1986-2011 [Hardcover]

This volume collects the notable published book reviews of Martha C. Nussbaum, an acclaimed philosopher who is also a professor of law and a public intellectual. Her academic work focuses on questions of moral and political philosophy and on the nature of the emotions. But over the past 25 years she has also written many book reviews for a general public, in periodicals such asThe New RepublicandThe New York Review of Books. Dating from 1986 to the present, these essays engage, constructively and also critically, with authors like Roger Scruton, Allan Bloom, Charles Taylor, Judith Butler, Richard Posner, Catharine MacKinnon, Susan Moller Okin, and other prominent intellectuals of our time. Throughout, her views defy ideological predictability, heralding valuable work from little-known sources, deftly criticizing where criticism is due, and generally providing a compelling picture of how philosophy in the Socratic tradition can engage with broad social concerns. For this volume, Nussbaum provides an intriguing introduction that explains her selection and provides her view of the role of the public philosopher.

Introduction
1. Women's Lot, review of Jane Roland Martin,Reclaiming a Conversation: The Ideal of the Educated Woman,The New York Review of Books, January 30, 1986.
2. Sex in the Head, review of Roger Scruton,Sexual Desire: A Moral Philosophy of the Erotic,The New York Review of Books, December 18, 1986.
3. Undemocratic Vistas, review of Allan Bloom,The Closing of the American Mind: How Higher Education Has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today's Students,The New York Review of Books, November 5, 1987.
4. Recoiling from Reason, review of Alasdair MacIntyre,Whose Justice? Which Rationality,The New York Review of Books, December 7, 1989.
5. The Bondage and Freedom of Eros, Review of David Halperin,One Hundred Years of Holc2