How can higher education today create a community of critical thinkers and searchers for the truth that transcends the boundaries of class, gender and nation? In this book the author argues that contemporary curricular reform is already producing such "citizens of the world" in its advocacy of diverse forms of cross-cultural studies. Nussbaum's defence of "the new education" is rooted in Seneca's ideal of the citizen who scrutinizes tradition critically and who respects the ability to reason wherever it is found, in rich or poor, native or foreigner, female or male. Drawing on Socrates and the Stoics, the author establishes three core values of liberal education: critical self-examination, the ideal of the world citizen and the development of the narrative imagination. Then taking the reader to a variety of classrooms and campuses, Nussbaum aims to show how these values are being embodied in particular courses. She defends such courses as gender, minority and gay studies against charges of moral relativism and low standards, and underscores their dynamic and fundamental contribution to critical reasoning and world citizenship. Nussbaum aims to show that liberal education is alive and well on American campuses and is not only viable and constructive, but essential to a democratic society.

瑪莎·納斯鮑姆（Martha C,Nussbaum） “新斯多葛派”的政治和道德哲學傢，在哈佛大學獲得博士學位，曾先後任教於哈佛大學、布朗大學和牛津大學，現為芝加哥大學法學和倫理學教授。2003年美國《新政治傢》雜誌列齣的“我們時代十二位偉大思想傢”，納斯鮑姆就是其中之一。她還擔任瞭美國哲學協會中部分會的主席，在美國國內外都是極富影響的思想傢。