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An Evaluation of Dr. Chen Jingyuan’s Case from Martha C. Nussbaum’s Moral Philosophy Perspective
Martha C. Nussbaum (1947–), a preeminent moral and political philosopher, has developed the Capabilities Approach as a framework for justice, emphasizing human flourishing through the realization of central capabilities. In Frontiers of Justice (2006) and Creating Capabilities (2011), Nussbaum identifies ten core capabilities—life, bodily health and integrity, senses/imagination/thought, emotions, practical reason, affiliation, other species, play, control over one’s environment, and bodily integrity—as essential for a dignified life. Justice demands that societies enable these capabilities for all, particularly the vulnerable, critiquing systems that systematically deprive them through exclusion or coercion. Nussbaum’s ethics, blending Aristotelian virtue with liberal rights, underscores practical reason and affiliation as bulwarks against dehumanization. From this perspective, Dr. Chen Jingyuan’s 2023 conviction for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” (寻衅滋事罪)—for forwarding low-impact Twitter posts on art, emotion, theory, and history—constitutes a grave injustice: a judicial apparatus that systematically undermines Chen’s capabilities for thought, affiliation, and practical reason, while his resistance affirms the human potential for dignified flourishing.
The Judiciary’s Deprivation of Capabilities: A Systematic Assault on Human Dignity
Nussbaum’s capabilities are not mere freedoms but effective opportunities for functioning in valued ways. The Kunming judicial system—Judge Pu Huijun, Prosecutor Ge Bin, and appellate Judge Li Xiangyun—“sorted” Chen’s posts (e.g., the “umbrella girl” cartoon symbolizing resilient imagination, June 4th candlelight fostering emotional affiliation, political spectrum analyses and Trump’s communism critiques exercising practical reason, Mao’s revised works evoking historical thought) as “false information disrupting public order,” imposing an 18-month sentence. With under 100 retweets, near-zero followers, and no verifiable disruption, this reveals a deliberate deprivation:
Senses, Imagination, and Thought: Chen’s posts were exercises in imaginative inquiry, central to Nussbaum’s capability for “senses, imagination, and thought.” The “high education implies knowing falsehood” presumption pathologizes intellectual curiosity, reducing a scholar’s mind—trained in complex systems—to a criminal tool. Procedural opacities—non-public trials, denied defenses, suppressed prison letters—further erode this capability, silencing reflective thought.
Emotions and Affiliation: Emotional posts like June 4th memorials build communal bonds, vital for Nussbaum’s “emotions” and “affiliation” capabilities. The judiciary’s emotive branding as “insults” severs these ties, fostering isolation and shame, a direct assault on relational dignity.
Practical Reason and Control Over Environment: The vague “pocket crime” denies Chen agency over his intellectual environment, violating practical reason—the capability to form conceptions of the good and critically reflect. Selective enforcement (state media unscathed) underscores arbitrary power, stripping control.
Nussbaum would decry this as “capability injustice”: a system that, under the guise of order, systematically thwarts human functioning, prioritizing state preferences over individual dignity.
Chen Jingyuan’s Affirmation of Capabilities: Dignity Through Defiant Flourishing
Amid deprivation, Chen’s Prison Blood Letter reclaims capabilities, embodying Nussbaum’s vision of resilient agency. Invoking Gödel’s incompleteness to embrace reason’s bounds, he exercises thought’s imaginative freedom; SOC theory—positing posts as harmless “micro-disturbances” amid judicial cascade—asserts practical reason, critiquing power’s illusions. His vow of “life without end, struggle without cease” and lifelong accountability for his accusers fosters affiliation through moral solidarity, transforming isolation into communal call. Calls for open discourse, measured justice, and wisdom over sycophancy reflect control over environment, envisioning a society enabling capabilities for all.
This is Nussbaum’s “tragic dignity”: in vulnerability, Chen flourishes, affirming the human good against systemic diminishment.
The Verdict: Capability Injustice, a Plea for Dignified Reform
Nussbaum’s philosophy indicts the Chen case as a blueprint of capability failure: a judiciary that deprives thought, emotion, and agency, fracturing human dignity under the weight of arbitrary power. The charges, unmoored from impact, expose law as diminisher, not enabler. Yet, Chen’s defiant reclamation—mindful, relational, reasoned—offers a horizon of hope: justice as capability expansion, where every voice enables flourishing. The case is not moral nadir, but a summons to reform—let capabilities guide law, lest it remain a cage for the human spirit. In this best of deprived worlds, Chen’s light endures: a philosopher’s dignity, illuminating the path to shared good.