Welcome
Today, we are going to do two things. The first thing is to explore care ethics together. Today, we are going to talk about a new approach to ethics, and that is care ethics. This is a growing field that attempts to rethink ethics not in terms of principles, rules, duties, or virtues, but instead in terms of the care that takes place within relationships. Care ethics takes as its foundation the practice, or the experience, of responding to the needs of another. It sees the root of ethics as being a responsiveness to the needs of others with whom we are in relationship.
The basic idea here is that we live in relation. Ethics consist in being properly attentive to the other person with whom one is in relation. In doing so, we become responsive to their needs, even putting our own projects aside so that we can actively care for them. As the philosopher Nell Noddings writes, “Care ethics is oriented toward needs, not rights. It does not reject the powerful concept of rights, but it recognizes needs as primary. ” (see Noddings, Nel. “Care Ethics, Caregiving, and Global Caring.” Care – Wer Sorgt Für Wen?, edited by Vera Moser and Inga Pinhard, 1st ed., Verlag Barbara Budrich, 2010, pp. 17–26.). Noddings writes that one challenge we face is making the move from caring about to caring for.
We’re also going to split this class into three “slots” of 30 minutes each, to give you a chance to break and rest! Let’s see how it goes.
Our experience of care
Think of a specific time when someone acted in a way to truly care for you—in a meaningful way. What did they do, and how did it make you feel? Write for 5 minutes.
Now, in breakout groups, discuss this experience of care.
- What quality made this act feel like genuine care?
- What were the effects of this care (on both you, and on the other person)?
- Did it involve following a rule, or was it something more responsive to your situation?
An Introduction to Care Ethics
Care ethics has its roots in a specifically feminist approach to ethics. Let’s watch Carol Gilligan, one of the most significant figures in care ethics, introducing the topic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2W_9MozRoKE
Let’s look at some questions:
- What did you most agree with in the video? What did you most disagree with?
- In your experience, do men and women think about ethics differently?
- Are our theories of ethics limited if they only include men’s voices?
- Do we have different moral expectations on men and women?
- In your society, is “caring about relationships” gendered?
We’ll talk about these in groups, and then in the next session, we’ll think
Care in society
If we have time, we’ll look at some initial questions about care in society.
- Is more care always a good thing? Why (or why not)?
- What is the difference between caring about and caring for?
- What are the conditions that help produce a more caring environment? What conditions prevent the creation of a more caring environment?
Learning the Use New Research Tools
In the next couple of sessions, I’m going to build in some extra help with your essays, telling you about some research tools that will be helpful to you. First, we’re going to look at Zotero: https://courses.willbuckingham.com/posts/everyone/zotero/