Students’ research. Between Nationalism, Globalism, and Ideologies: Analysis of M. Nussbaum Concept of Justice

Project idea

The main goal of this project is to enhance the student’s research competences by implementing a political theory research with an aim to reconstruct the concept of justice, proposed by Martha Nussbaum. The relevance of this topic is determined by the complicated realization of the international justice: the scale of injustice has been increasing because of economic globalisation, as well as the rising threat of isolationist nationalism. This research analyses one of the latest philosophical responses to these problems formulated by Nussbaum, suggesting a global, materialist, and liberal concept of justice. This research seeks to find out whether an inter-ideological consensus regarding this model is possible and whether the concept of justice proposed by Nussbaum would not eliminate cultural and national specificities of countries. The aim of this research is to reveal (1) that the materialist concept of justice oriented towards the human dignity relies on the insights of classical philosophy, first and foremost, on“Nicomachean Ethics” by Aristotle and “On Duties” by Cicero, which find support among representatives of all major classical political ideologies; (2) that despite encouraging participation in the global political dialogue, the international concept of justice still maintains the individuality of states. Due to limited material resources, countries are only able to fulfil some of their commitments and, thus, national specificities will remain the basis on which a state will prioritize ever different life spheres ensuring human dignity. The results of this research will be relevant both in Lithuania (as it provides the philosophical criteria allowing different political forces to agree upon justice that could secure dignity, such as the basis of welfare state) and internationally (as it reveals a novel point of view towards the international justice and builds a foundation for possible future research).