School
Care ethics
Care ethics is the moral theory that puts caring relationships, dependence and responsiveness to particular others at the centre of ethics.
It took shape in the United States in the 1980s. Carol Gilligan's In a Different Voice (1982) argued that theories of moral development had overlooked reasoning based on care and responsibility, and Nel Noddings developed an ethics of caring in the same decade. Virginia Held and Eva Kittay later extended it to politics, dependency work and disability. Care ethicists ask whether impartial theories of duty and justice leave something important out. On this site it answers questions on care and relational approaches (3.2.5), normative ethics, love and friendship, and the philosophy of disability.
Thinkers of this school
Guide: Schools of Philosophy: The Main -isms and the Questions They Answer
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Filial duty, but whose? In most families I know, the daughter-in-law pays it
In my family, and in almost every family I know, when parents grow old the care is done by a woman who is not their daughter. The son has the duty; the son's wife does the work. Nobody says this out loud.…
Started by Thamarai Raman2 replies -
What did Bernard Williams mean by ‘one thought too many’?
A book on care ethics I borrowed keeps quoting Bernard Williams's phrase "one thought too many", and I think I understand it but I want to be sure. As I understand the case: a man can save only one of two drowning…
Started by Thamarai Raman4 replies -
Who is left out when morality is a bargain?
I came to this question with a personal stake. I've used a wheelchair since I was fourteen. The Hobbesian strand of contract theory says morality is what rational, self-interested people would agree to for mutual advantage. David Gauthier's Morals by Agreement (1986)…
Started by Dima Nasser5 replies