Can there be mercy without the merciful? A meditation on Martha Nussbaum’s questions

Martha Nussbaum raised profound concerns about aid as being conceived out of the self-directed charity of donors and not the expressed concerns of those being aided. Even when the recipients of aid seek to express their concerns, their capabilities may not recognise their own conditions and desirable remedies. This paper agrees that Nussbaum’s questions are profound, but argues that even they do not go far enough.