Care ethics week 2

You position care ethics in relation to dominant ethical theories: deontology, utilitarianism, virtue ethics

Deontology: morality based on principles/rules

Utilitarianism: what produces best consequences/maximize well-being

Virtue ethics: morality concerns developing virtues

Care ethics: morality must also consider relationships, needs, attentiveness, etc.

Ruddick's main idea

Can we understand Reason differently? Traditional philosophy ignores the moral significance of everyday practices such as mothering

Maternal practices

The actual activities involved in caring for children, such as protecting them, helping them grow.

Preservation: keeps child alive

Nurturance/growth: help child develop

Social acceptability/training: teach child to function in society

--> can conflict, so use judgement

How can maternal practices conflict?

preservation asks to protect child in circumstances, but growth demands independence.

Maternal thinking

Develops through practice of mothering. Mothers develop ways of thinking and making judgements based on the demands of caring for children.

Example maternal practice and maternal thining

A mother protects her child from danger (maternal practice). She must judge what counts as a danger and how much freedom her child should have (maternal thinking). By studying how caregivers respond to needs and conflicts, we can develop an ethics grounded in care, responsibility, and practical judgment rather than relying only on abstract rules.

Which practice does Ruddick turn towards?

Mothering

Held main idea

Creation of moral framework of care. Different areas of society should give priority to different values. Dominant ethics emphasizes autonomy, rights and impartiality, while relationships and dependency should be central to moral theory

Justice vs care debate and gender bias

Justice asks what is fair and what rules apply, while care asks contextually, what responsibilities. Traditional ethics sees an individual, autonomous, rational, independent, focused on public sphere (male), while care sees someone as relational and interdependent, focused on private sphere (female).

Personal is political

Held means that women in private sphere are e.g. expected to take care of children unpaid, but this also affects ability to work, development of child, economic inequality, etc.

Held's solution

use care as broader moral framework, with justice having priority in domain of law. Different areas of society should give priority to different values

Gilligan main idea

Women and girls follow a different moral perspective focused on relationships and responsibility. She isn't saying women are more caring, but that traditional theories focus too much on the justice perspective and claim that is better.

Kohlberg and Gilligan's critique

Kohlberg's theory claims that the highest form of morality is the justice perspective. Gilligan argued that women have a different moral understanding: one focused upon care.

Gilligan's developmental story

1. Concern for the self. Responsibility is looking after yourself

2. Goodness as self-sacrifice. Being a good person can mean putting others before yourself. Problem: own needs disappear

3. Balancing care for self and others.

Jake vs Amy