Value Imperialism Essay

428 Words2 Pages
Martha Nussbaum claims that her Capabilities Approach is universally applicable. Some would argue this is a form of value-imperialism. The term value imperialism refers to the mass spread of values/traditions or a set of norms that all humans should follow because it is the right thing to do according to those people. The problem is that this is usually the view of the most powerful people of a society, who have more access to political expression. Even though some humans might be similar, everyone in the world is different, thus making our beliefs and values different as well. This makes value imperialism a negative and harmful occurrence in society. She dismisses the charge that her approach is value imperialism quiet effectively in chapter 5. Instead of giving people values to follow, she gives us a question, which is “What am I able to be? What are my options?” which according to her are the realistic questions people everywhere, in every society ask themselves every day. Another argument she uses is that in order to get the actual views of what a culture values and needs, we would need to search out the views of minorities, woman, rural people, and many others who do not have a strong political voice. She also uses the example of respecting people’s difference in their choices. To do this, Nussbaum says, you must respect the areas of freedom around the people within which they make their choices. She uses the example of mandatory blood transfusions for life saving medical treatment and the Jehovah’s Witnesses. This is violating the freedom of the Jehovah’s witnesses to deny this procedure because of value imperialism and what society thinks is the right thing to do. Nussbaum believes her approach is something everyone can relate to and all governments should adopt it, while actual value-imperialism are the views of powerful people that are most likely very
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