ABSTRACT
In Love’s Knowledge, Martha Nussbaum defends Aristotle’s view that it is a mistake to try to understand rationality on a “scientific” model. For Aristotle, in Nussbaum’s view “the content of rational choice must be supplied by nothing less messy than experience and stories of experience. Among stories of conduct, the most true and informative are works of literature, biography and history; the more abstract the story gets, the less rational it is to use it as one’s only guide.” 1 Nussbaum points out that for Aristotle, good deliberation is something like “theatrical or musical improvisation, where what counts is flexibility, responsiveness, and openness to the external” (p. 74). To expect a “scientific” account or something like an algorithm, she suggests, would be a sign of immaturity and weakness.
