Concept
Ethics of care
Overview
The ethics of care (alternatively care ethics or EoC) is a normative ethical theory that holds that moral action centers on interpersonal relationships and care or benevolence as a virtue. EoC is one of a cluster of normative ethical theories that were developed by some feminists and environmentalists since the 1980s. While consequentialist and deontological ethical theories emphasize generalizable standards and impartiality, ethics of care emphasize the importance of response to the individual. The distinction between the general and the individual is reflected in their different moral questions: "what is just?" versus "how to respond?" Carol Gilligan, who is considered the originator of the ethics of care, criticized the application of generalized standards as "morally problematic, since it breeds moral blindness or indifference".
Assumptions of the framework include: persons are understood to have varying degrees of dependence and interdependence; other individuals affected by the consequences of one's choices deserve consideration in proportion to their vulnerability; and situational details determine how to safeguard and promote the interests of individuals.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
A mother is called good who, ministering to all the physical needs of her children, also adjusts her behavior in ways conducive to their mental health; and a bad father is one who either does not provide the necessaries of life for his family or otherwise acts in a manner injurious to their bodies or minds. Similarly of the education given to them, or provided for them.
Herbert Spencer, The Data of Ethics
States what Ethics of care is.
It is thus justice or a regard to the property of others, fidelity or the observance of promises, become obligatory and acquire an authority over mankind. For as it is evident that every man loves himself better than any other person, he is naturally impelled to extend his acquisitions as much as possible; and nothing can restrain him in this propensity but reflection and experience, by which he learns the…
David Hume, Hume's Political Discourses
The author is tied to Ethics of care in the knowledge graph.
1. Moral philosophy, or the science of human nature, may be treated after two different manners; each of which has its peculiar merit, and may contribute to the entertainment, instruction, and reformation of mankind. The one considers man chiefly as born for action; and as influenced in his measures by taste and sentiment; pursuing one object, and avoiding another, according to the value which these objects seem to…
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
The author is tied to Ethics of care in the knowledge graph.
Philosophers who discussed Ethics of care
Related ideas
- Feminism
- John Locke
- Justice
- University of Chicago Press
- Normative ethics
- Deontology
- Carol Gilligan
- Thomas Hobbes
- Empathy
- Utilitarianism
- Buddhism
- Compassion
- Social contract
- Kantian ethics
- Consequentialism
- Shantideva
- David Hume
- Ethics
- Jason Josephson Storm
- In a Different Voice
- Nel Noddings
Place in the tradition
Part of Morality.