Ethics Of Care

Ethics of care arose from second wave feminism in 1980's

It comes from concrete, particular experience. Rather than abstract principles.

It's moral core is the value that lies within relationships and the maintenance of them. It's particular like virtue ethics is, it's not looking at global rules, it looks at individual situations.

It's focus is the relationship between people, rather than the character of the person itself. It compels people to action.

Carol Gilligan was one of the first proponents of this. She felt virtue ethics was often very male centric, and focusing on seperate, autonomous people. She felt the reality of how we operate is about relationships. She wondered, did girls operate in different ways than boys? She found girls often worked on the relationship between people, she called this "a different voice"

She felt there was a difference between ethic of care, and an ethic of justice.

Nel Noddings, tried to take this on and make it more of a theory. She created the idea of "the caring relationship". The "one-caring", and the "cared-for". It's a two way relationship though, you can be the one-caring and the cared-for at the same time. She came from an education background, and tried to develop it as the ethic of care"

Sara Ruddick took this on from a philosophic model. She particularly focused on the maternal relationship. Feeling we can learn from it in the professional setting.

Annette Baier expanded this into a political theory. She resists the idea that we're completely autonomous individuals. We grow up in this web of connection. We are held by other people and their relationships.

Modern Definition of Caring

Think of Tronto and Fisher - work on care in the US. They've got a very broad definition of care, that's pretty vague.

The importance of care:

There are practical, ethical, and political motivations for care.

It's required physically, to allow human "flourishing", and to set foundations for society.

How does care work?

Nel Noddings says the motivation to be moral is found in creating and maintaining caring relationships. She thinks that is intrinsically good.

Engrossement - motivational displacement - response

Engrossment: It's freeing oursleves from our own biases, we're comprehending what's happening to the other person (the cared for).

A problem in engrossment, is we need to recognise our own biases, and seperate our own emotions from it. It would be pretty time consuming though, not very practical.

Motivational Displacement: That's the compelling to act (the action may be a compelling to stop act), and the act

Response: You see the response from the individual.

An act would be a moral one if it brings favourable outcome for the patient. The recipient should validate that care.

Modern Theories

Jonathan Herring talks about care in action, there are 4 key markers.

• Meeting of needs - The value of care must be some form of action
• Respect - Recognizing the fellow humanity in the other
• Responsibility - The notion to care is a commitment which reaches beyond what we might desire to do
• Relationality - Highlights the importance of reciprocity, and the merging of identity, and the blurring of boundaries that can occur

Ethics of Care VS Virtue Ethics

Are they the same thing? Care ethicists will argue no it's not, that virtue focuses on the relationships rather than the individual

Benefits:

• It's flexible
• It's partial
• It's an ideal of human flourishing
• It recognises the value of relationships on our identity
• Because it examines the worth of relationships, it can uncover abuse/coercion/etc

Disadvantages:

• Too vague
• Romanticises care
• Too partial