Care Ethics: Noddings and Gilligan

Nell Noddings

• American philosopher focused on philosophy of education, educational theory, and ethics of care.
• Born in 1929, died in 2022.
• Education:
  • Bachelor's from Montclair State University.
  • Master's in mathematics from Rutgers University.
  • PhD in education from Stanford University.
• Taught at:
  • Stanford University,
  • Columbia University,
  • Colgate University,
  • Eastern Michigan University.

Carol Gilligan

• Studied at Swarthmore College (Bachelor's).
• Master's in clinical psychology from Radcliffe College.
• PhD in Social Psychology from Harvard.
• Taught at:
  • University of Chicago,
  • Harvard,
  • Cambridge,
  • New York University.

Overview of Care Ethics

• Differs from normative ethical theories (utilitarianism, deontology, virtue ethics) by moving away from general rules.
• Focuses on personal relationships and interactions.

Noddings' Ethical Theory

• Aims to create a universal ethical theory while avoiding moral subjectivism.
• Uses the universal experience of caring as a model.
• Model is both feminine and explicitly feminist.
• Focuses on the needs of those cared for in relational contexts to determine moral obligations.
• Views ethics as feminine because women are more likely to approach problems from a caring standpoint due to socialization and social status.
• Founds ethical principles on human love and caring in human relationships.

Natural Caring vs. Ethical Caring

• Natural Caring: Acting on behalf of someone else because you want to.
  • Analogy to mother caring for her children (human and non-human animals).
  • Driven by natural drive, instinct, or desire.
  • Example: Buying coffee, writing a kind note, or baking cookies for a friend because you care and want to do it.
• Ethical Caring: Acting on behalf of someone because you ought to, despite conflicting desires to serve your own interests.
  • Described as an "I must" response to someone's plight.
  • Example: Helping a friend going through a tough time, even if you want to avoid the stress and emotional labor.

Prioritization of Relationships

• Care ethics may prioritize interpersonal relationships over obligations to distant strangers.
• Criticism: Morality requires treating everyone the same.
• Noddings' response: Relationships form a good basis for interacting with others.
• Good moral reasons exist for preferring friends and loved ones in certain circumstances.

Gilligan's Perspectives on Morality

• Distinction between the justice perspective and the care perspective.
• Based on observations from studies where participants responded to moral dilemmas.
• Justice Perspective:
  • Focuses on abstract universal principles.
  • Often adopted by male participants in research studies.
• Care Perspective:
  • Focuses on relations.
  • Often adopted by female participants in research studies.
  • Focuses on concrete relationships between individuals instead of abstract principles of right and wrong.

Example: Test Proctor Caught Drinking

• Student must decide whether to report the proctor for violating rules.
• Justice Perspective:
  • May argue against reporting based on principles related to the rule's fairness or the proctor's behavior.
• Care Perspective:
  • Focuses on what is best to handle the person's drinking problem.
  • Aims to be a source of help, not harm.
  • May argue against reporting if it won't help with the alcohol problem; instead, focus on helping the individual.

Attachment vs. Detachment

• Care approach shifts the question from equality or fairness to attachment or detachment.
• Actions that increase attachment to others are more appropriate, while those that detach are less appropriate.

Integration with Other Ethical Theories

• A caring approach can be applied to balance other normative ethical theories.