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Adaptive preferences
Adaptive preferences are desires and values that have been shaped, consciously or unconsciously, by unjust conditions of deprivation or oppression. For example, a person denied education from birth may not desire it, but this absence of desire does not show the deprivation is acceptable.
Combined capability
In Nussbaum's framework, a combined capability is the union of a person's internal capabilities (developed skills and traits) with the external social, political, and material conditions required to exercise them. A formal legal right is insufficient if social norms or lack of resources prevent its exercise.
Conversion problem
The conversion problem, central to Nussbaum and Sen's capabilities approach, is the observation that different people convert the same resources into real opportunities at vastly different rates. A person with a disability, an elderly person, or a pregnant woman may need far more resources than an able-bodied adult to achieve equivalent effective freedom.
Cultural imperialism
Cultural imperialism refers to the imposition of one culture's values, norms, or practices onto other cultures, typically by those in positions of global power. Nussbaum responds to this objection by grounding the capabilities list in cross-cultural dialogue rather than any single cultural tradition.