As I am currently a Junior taking this class I have not and am not taking “Citizenship” as a course. I look forward to enrolling in the class for next year, my first semester of Senior year, but as of now I can not speak to the relevance of Nussbaum to that class. However, with that being said, a passage from Nussbaum, and a sentiment that he continually returns to is when he discusses how “…democracy is built upon respect and concern”. Of course, citizenship is in its totality the pursuit of shaping our democratic government into the best version it can possibly be, and Nussbaum attempts to here give us basic tools to do so. His wording of “respect” and “concern” is akin to the concept we have repeatedly discussed the Humanities granting to us; “empathy”. The understanding of other people’s cultures, past experiences, troubles, triumphs, and lives are what allow us to relate, respect, show concern for and empathize with, and this is exactly what the aim of the Humanities is. While the social sciences have a semblance of these focuses, some of my Humanities courses have certainly placed significant weight on citizenship and empathy. In all of the English classes I have taken in my collegiate career to date we have been exposed to pieces of literature from around the world and throughout time, allowing me to experience different people’s ideas and situations and giving me the resources I need to develop empathy. They have allowed me to see the great positives of our democracy as well as witness some of its pitfalls and offer critiques, and both sides of the spectrum are certainly important to become the best citizen one can. As a final word, I agree wholeheartedly with Nussbaum’s assessment of empathy having a place in our democracy, as it has been lacking this in recent times, and I believe that the Humanities gives us the tools to do so, giving the discipline great value that should be expanded to touch the greatest number of students and citizens.
