Introduction: Contesting Equilibria: Martha C. Nussbaum Versus John Rawls

This chapter provides the close engagement with philosopher Martha C. Nussbaum’s literary interventions that those interventions deserve but have not yet received from scholars of literature. Exploring Nussbaum’s concept of perceptive equilibrium, which she deems the optimal result of ethical inquiry, this engagement considers withal the alternative proposition with which Nussbaum herself contends, John Rawls’s concept of reflective equilibrium. Rawls bases his approach on the philosophical and ethical bedrock provided by Immanuel Kant. Rawls’s notion depends, therefore, on the measurement of moral choices against philosophical standards or rules; reflection is paramount in resolving moral conundrums. Nussbaum’s notion does not depend on the measurement of moral choices against philosophical standards; perception is paramount in resolving moral conundrums. This chapter leaves the choice between these approaches open.