Emotions shape the landscape of our mental and social lives. Like geological upheavals in a landscape, they mark our lives as uneven, uncertain and prone to reversal. Are they simply, as some have claimed, animal energies or impulses with no connection to our thoughts? Or are they rather suffused with intelligence and discernment, and thus a source of deep awareness and understanding? In this compelling book, Martha C. Nussbaum presents a powerful argument for treating emotions not as alien forces but as highly discriminating responses to what is of value and importance. She explores and illuminates the structure of a wide range of emotions, in particular compassion and love, showing that there can be no adequate ethical theory without an adequate theory of the emotions. This involves understanding their cultural sources, their history in infancy and childhood, and their sometimes unpredictable and disorderly operations in our daily lives.

This volume brings together Martha Nussbaum's published papers, some revised for this collection, on the relationship between literature and philosophy, especially moral philosophy. It also includes two new essays and a substantial Introduction. The papers, many of them previously not readily available to non-specialist readers, explore such fundamental issues as the relationship between style and content in the exploration of ethical questions; the nature of ethical attention and ethical knowledge and their relationship to written forms and style; and the role of the emotions in deliberation and self-knowledge. The author investigates and defends a conception of ethical understanding which involves emotional as well as intellectual activity, and which gives a certain type of priority to the perception of particular people and situations rather than to abstract rule.

本書是探討法律、人性及社會的重量級著作，也是Nussbaum大師著作的首部中譯本。 有關性與色情的法律，是否應該基於「何謂令人噁心」的社會風俗習慣？是否重罪犯應該被要求在汽車保險桿上貼上標籤或穿著Ｔ恤來昭示他們的罪行？美國最具影響力的哲學家瑪莎．克雷文．納思邦，在這本震撼人心又精闢的書中，以批判的角度去探討在個人與社會生活中，以及特別是在法律中，羞恥與噁心所扮演的角色。 納思邦教授主張，我們必須提防這些情感，因為它們以麻煩的方式與我們想逃離自身人性的欲望交雜著；它們體現了一種使自己不受傷害的渴求，而這種渴求是不切實際，有時甚至是病態的。納思邦教授主張，噁心本身的思維內涵體現了巫術裡關於不淨的觀念，以及對純潔、不朽、擺脫動物性的無謂渴望，而與我們所知的人類生活不一致。」她主張噁心絕不能成為一個行為入罪化的判斷基礎，也不應該如目前這樣在法律中扮演加重或減輕刑罰的角色。她還主張，我們對她所稱的「原始羞恥」，亦即一種「針對人類不完美之事實」的羞恥，也應該同樣存疑；而她對某些懲罰活動中這種羞恥所扮演的角色，也持嚴厲批判的立場。 納思邦教授採用了極度豐富的哲學、心理學和歷史資料，從亞里斯多德、佛洛伊德到納粹的淨化思想，並舉出各式各樣的法律案例，如奧斯卡‧王爾德的審判以及瑪莎‧史都華的內線交易案，使本書成為法律與道德哲學的重要著作。 (引自︰http://www.cite.com.tw/product_info.php?products_id=12750)

In Poetic Justice, one of our most prominent philosophers explores how the literary imagination is an essential ingredient of just public discourse and a democratic society.

This book is a study of ancient views about 'moral luck'. It examines the fundamental ethical problem that many of the valued constituents of a well-lived life are vulnerable to factors outside a person's control, and asks how this affects our appraisal of persons and their lives. The Greeks made a profound contribution to these questions, yet neither the problems nor the Greek views of them have received the attention they deserve. This book thus recovers a central dimension of Greek thought and addresses major issues in contemporary ethical theory. One of its most original aspects is its interrelated treatment of both literary and philosophical texts. The Fragility of Goodness has proven to be important reading for philosophers and classicists, and its non-technical style makes it accessible to any educated person interested in the difficult problems it tackles. This new edition features an entirely new preface by Martha Nussbaum.