On this week’s episode of “Chicago Stories” podcast, Mayor Emanuel was joined by Martha Nussbaum, famed philosopher and University of Chicago Law School professor, for a conversation about ideas and ideals, the role of philosophers in the public arena, and the churning emotions of our political moment that she laid out in latest book, The Monarchy of Fear.

Professor Nussbaum’s new book may have been inspired by President Trump’s election, but it’s the latest in a long line of publications directly aimed at engaging the public mind toward greater awareness and self-examination.

As Professor Nussbaum told Mayor Emanuel, it’s an approach that dates back to Socrates, and one she argues makes philosophy crucial for a democracy.

“If you haven’t asked yourself what do I really mean, and how does this belief relate to this belief, how does it all cohere together, then you’re not really living your own life, you’re letting other people tell you what to think,” Professor Nussbaum said.

It was in that spirit that Professor Nussbaum created the Capabilities Theory, which she developed in collaboration with Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen.

As she told Mayor Emanuel, the standard measure of how well a nation was doing had been Gross Domestic Product per capita, but that didn’t account for inequality or other areas of life including health care, maternal mortality, and other measures.

“You want to take into account the different areas of human life and ask in each of these areas what are people likely to do and to be,” Professor Nussbaum said.

Be sure to listen to the rest of the episode as Professor Nussbaum and Mayor Emanuel talk about some of her favorite philosophers, her conversion to Judaism, and the politics of hope and fear.

Listen and subscribe to Chicago Stories podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

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